Featuring a dozen musicians, with songs in 25 languages, Pink Martini performs its multilingual repertoire on concert stages on six continents. After making it’s European debut at the Cannes Film Festival in 1997 and its orchestral debut with the Oregon Symphony in 1998, the band has gone on to play with more than 50 orchestras around the world, including multiple engagements with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, the Boston Pops, the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center, the San Francisco Symphony, and the BBC Concert Orchestra at Royal Albert Hall in London. Pink Martini has released 11 studio albums on its own independent label Heinz Records (named after Lauderdale’s dog), selling over 3 million albums worldwide.
In 1994 in his hometown of Portland, Oregon, Thomas Lauderdale was working in local politics when he saw the need for most engaging and inspiring music at political fundraisers. Drawing inspiration from music from all over the world – crossing genres of classical, jazz and old-fashioned pop – and hoping to appeal to conservatives and liberals alike, he founded the “little orchestra” Pink Martini in 1994 to provide more beautiful and inclusive musical soundtracks for causes such as civil rights, affordable housing, the environment, libraries, public broadcasting, education and parks. One year later, Lauderdale called China Forbes, a Harvard classmate who was living in New York City, and asked her to join Pink Martini. Their first song writing collaboration was “Sympathique (Je ne veux pas travailler)” which became an overnight sensation in France, was nominated for “Song of the Year” at France’s Victoires de la Musique Awards, and is still the band’s number one song. In 2024 the band is celebrating it’s 30th anniversary.
China Forbes
China Forbes was born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts and graduated cum laude from Harvard, majoring in Visual Arts and English, with a minor in Theater. After graduation, and before being lured West to sing with Pink Martini by Harvard friend and classmate Thomas Lauderdale, China lived performed off Broadway, in New York regional theatre and as a singer/songwriter in NYC clubs.
China because the lead singer for Pink Martini in 1995 and has co-written many of the bands most beloved songs with Lauderdale, starting with “Sympathique”, and continuing to the most recent singles “Lemonade Song” and “Let’s Be Friends”. Her original song “Northern Line” plays over the end credits of sister Maya Forbes’ directorial debut film Infinitely Polar Bear (Sony Pictures Classics). Last year Chin Forbes released her post-pandemic anthem “Full Circle” followed by her suicide song “Rise”, both singles for the forthcoming third solo album, slated for release in early 2024. She is the recipient of the 2022 Ella Fitzgerald Award at the Montreal International Jaz Festival; previous winners include Diana Ross, Etta James, and Liza Minelli.
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