Pink Martini Celebrates 30 Year Anniversary with North American Tour This Summer & Fall

Pink Martini - the renowned musical group from Portland, known for its eclectic blend of classical, jazz, and Latin music - is celebrating its 30th Anniversary this year. The celebration features a massive North American tour which includes a 2-night stand at Hollywood Bowl on August 23 and 24 with Andrew Bird Trio opening. A stop at The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC on October 14 will feature the NPR host Ari Shapiro. The band will celebrate their actual anniversary with a show on October 13 at Symphony Hall in Boston. That show and their stop at New York City’s Carnegie Hall on November 1 will include special guests, with Shapiro and legendary Rita Moreno and performing in NYC. The tour kicks off with a hometown show at Edgefield in Portland, OR on August 17. China Forbes will be on the road with the band for the entire run and Edna Vazquez will also be joining as a guest singer. All dates are listed below and tickets are on sale now here.  

“Our mission is to represent a more beautiful, inclusive America, made up of a fabric of diverse people and cultures, and to unite our audiences, full of people of different ages, politics, and backgrounds, through the shared love of melody and music. I like to say 'If the United Nations had a house band in 1962, I’d like to think Pink Martini would be that band.' I think the music’s really beautiful, but actually what is more moving to me is looking at the incredible cross-section of people who are in our audience.” - Thomas Lauderdale

To celebrate this milestone, Pink Martini will be releasing new music this Summer and Fall with more information to be announced soon. 

In 2020 and 2021 Pink Martini shared a pair of singles via their own label Heinz Records. “Let’s Be Friends” brought back together the songwriting duo responsible for the band’s biggest hits - bandleader Thomas Lauderdale and singer China Forbes. The band followed that with “The Lemonade Song,” also featuring Forbes. Collectively they boast over 8 million streams on Spotify alone. 

Featuring a dozen musicians with songs in 25 languages, Pink Martini performs its multilingual repertoire on concert stages and with symphony orchestras throughout Europe, Asia, Greece, Turkey, the Middle East, Northern Africa, Australia, New Zealand, South America and North America. The band has played with more than 70 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, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Sydney Symphony at the Sydney Opera House, and the BBC Concert Orchestra at Royal Albert Hall in London.

Over their 30 years Pink Martini has collaborated with numerous artists, including Phyllis Diller, Jimmy Scott, Carol Channing, Rita Moreno, Jane Powell, Rufus Wainwright, filmmaker Gus Van Sant, the original cast of Sesame Street, and the Portland Youth Philharmonic. They also have an illustrious roster of regular guest artists: NPR’s Ari Shapiro, host of All Things Considered; Cantor Ida Rae Cahana (who was cantor at the Central Synagogue in NYC for five years); koto player Masumi Timson, and harpist Maureen Love. 

Pink Martini formed In 1994 when bandleader Thomas Lauderdale had finished college and returned to his hometown of Portland, OR. He was working at City Hall with an eye towards running for office. Being a classically trained pianist, music was always in the background, and he formed his “little orchestra,” soon dubbed Pink Martini, as a means to provide music for political fundraisers for progressive causes near to his heart - including civil rights, affordable housing, the environment, and public broadcasting. China Forbes, Lauderdale’s friend from their college days at Harvard, joined the group the following year, and the first song they wrote together, “Sympathique” (Je ne veux pas travailler), became an overnight sensation in France, where it remains a mantra (“Je ne veux pas travailler” translates to “I don’t want to work”) for striking French workers. Politics continues to be a focal point for the band, as both Lauderdale and Pink Martini lend their voice to progressive causes.    

Television appearances have included The Late Show with David Letterman, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Later with Jools Holland, and a feature on CBS Sunday Morning. The band created a nationally broadcast 2015 NPR holiday concert special, Joy to the World: A Holiday Spectacular, and has been featured on multiple New Year’s Eve broadcasts on NPR’s Toast of the Nation.

Pink Martini Tour dates

8/17 - Edgefield - Portland, OR

8/21 - Blue Note Summer Sessions at Meritage Resort - Napa, CA

8/23 - Hollywood Bowl - Los Angeles, CA

8/24 - Hollywood Bowl - Los Angeles, CA

8/25 - Rady Shell at Jacobs Park (with the San Diego Symphony) - San Diego, CA

8/27 - Red Butte Garden - Salt Lake City, UT

8/31 - Liberty Theatre - Astoria, OR

9/1 - Liberty Theatre - Astoria, OR

10/10 - Living Arts Centre - Mississauga, ON

10/11 - NAC Southam Hall - Ottawa, ON

10/12 - Mahaiwe Theatre - Great Barrington, MA

10/13 - Symphony Hall - Boston, MA

10/14 - Kennedy Center - Washington, D.C.

10/16 - Mercyhurst Theatre - Erie, PA

10/18 - State Theatre - Ithaca, NY

10/19 - Kleinhans Music Hall (with the Buffalo Philharmonic) - Buffalo, NY

10/20 - Lebanon Opera House - Lebanon, NH

10/21 - The Flynn Center - Burlington, VT

10/22 - Count Basie Center - Red Bank, NJ

10/24 - Schermerhorn Symphony Center (with the Nashville Symphony) - Nashville, TN

10/25 - Schermerhorn Symphony Center (with the Nashville Symphony) - Nashville, TN

10/26 - Schermerhorn Symphony Center (with the Nashville Symphony) - Nashville, TN

10/27 - Memorial Hall - Cincinnati, OH

10/29 - Carnegie of Homestead Music Hall - Pittsburgh, PA

10/31 - Ridgefield Playhouse - Ridgefield, CT

11/1 - Carnegie Hall - New York, NY

11/2 - Verizon Hall at Kimmel Center - Philadelphia, PA

12/2 - Rio Theater - Santa Cruz, CA

12/3 - Gallo Center for the Arts - Modesto, CA

12/4 - Mondavi Center - Davis, CA

12/6 - Luther Burbank Center - Santa Rosa, CA

12/7 - Van Duzer Theater - Arcata, CA

12/9 - Laxson Auditorium - Chico, CA

12/10 - SFJAZZ Center - San Francisco, CA

12/11 - SFJAZZ Center - San Francisco, CA

12/12 - SFJAZZ Center - San Francisco, CA

12/13 - SFJAZZ Center - San Francisco, CA

12/14 - SFJAZZ Center (two shows) - San Francisco, CA

12/15 - SFJAZZ Center (two shows) - San Francisco, CA

12/17 - Arlington Theatre - Santa Barbara, CA

12/18 - Cal Poly Arts - San Luis Obispo, CA

12/31 - Paramount Theatre (two shows) - Seattle, WA

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