Pink Martini on Tour
A massive collective with a rotating membership that's been active since the early 1990s, Pink Martini are a little orchestra that knows no stylistic bounds. Playing classical and jazz, Latin and pop, what threads their performances together is a lighthearted, jazzy vibe that basically demands you move along with it. Pink Martini have performed with over 50 orchestras in cities around the world, from the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the San Francisco Symphony to the BBC Concert Orchestra. Their first live breakthrough came at the Cannes Film Festival in 1997, while their orchestral debut came in 1998 with the Oregon Symphony. The ensemble played several New Year's Eve concerts at L.A.'s Walt Disney Concert Hall across the 2000s and early 2010s, and they've performed multiple sold-out concerts at New York's Carnegie Hall. Their live performance at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in Portland, Oregon, was aired live on NPR and eventually released in 2009 as a live CD/DVD called Discover the World. The group have also graced late-night talk show stages, including Conan O'Brien, David Letterman and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
Pink Martini in Concert
Started by pianist Thomas Lauderdale in Portland, Oregon, in 1994 as an alternative to the event-based ensembles he'd grown tired of playing in, Pink Martini quickly attracted hugely talented musicians like China Forbes and Storm Large. Their first album, Sympathique, charted in Belgium, France and Switzerland and was certified gold in Greece, while the album's eponymous single was nominated for Song of the Year at France's Victoires de la Musique awards. Pink Martini's 2004 sophomore album, Hang On Little Tomato, charted at No. 25 on the U.S. Billboard 200, and went 2x platinum in France, also earning gold status in Canada, Germany and Greece. The group has released numerous lauded albums since, including their hugely popular A Retrospective in 2011, which contained 21 tracks from their career and charted at No. 7 on U.S. Billboard's Top Jazz Albums.