In 1994 in his hometown of Portland, Oregon, Thomas M. Lauderdale was working in local politics and attending every political fundraiser under the sun, but was dismayed to find the music at these events underwhelming and lackluster. Drawing inspiration from music from around 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 political fundraisers 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 as the lead singer and collaborator. Their first song, “Sympathique (Je ne veux pas travailler),” 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 hit. “We’re very much an American band,” Lauderdale says, “but we spend a lot of time abroad and therefore have the incredible diplomatic opportunity to represent a broader, more inclusive America … the America that remains the most heterogeneously populated country in the world, composed of people of every country, every language, every religion.”

Featuring a dozen musicians with songs in 25 languages, Pink Martini performs its multilingual repertoire on concert stages across 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, Boston Pops, National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center, San Francisco Symphony, The Cleveland Orchestra, and BBC Concert Orchestra at London’s Royal Albert Hall. In 2014, Pink Martini was inducted into both the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame and the Oregon Music Hall of Fame.

Pink Martini has released 11 studio albums on its own independent label Heinz Records (named after Lauderdale’s dog), selling more than 3 million albums worldwide. In 2019, Pink Martini’s boutique label released two EPs that feature vocalists Jimmie Herrod and Edna Vazquez, who have toured regularly with the band since 2018. Herrod’s EP Tomorrow and Vaquez’s Besame Mucho include Pink Martini instrumentals and were co-produced by Lauderdale and Forbes. During their pandemic hiatus, the band released two digital singles written by Lauderdale, Forbes, and producer Jim Bianco, “Let’s Be Friends” and “The Lemonade Song,” that latter already reaching nearly 17 million streams on Spotify alone.

Active in Oregon politics since college, Thomas M. Lauderdale founded Pink Martini in 1994 to play political fundraisers for progressive causes such as civil rights, the environment, affordable housing, and public broadcasting. In addition to his work with Pink Martini, he has appeared as a soloist with numerous orchestras and ensembles, including the Oregon Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Portland Youth Philharmonic, and Chamber Music Northwest, as well as several collaborations with Oregon Ballet Theatre. Most recently, he completed a decades-in-the-making album Thomas Lauderdale Meets the Pilgrims. He is now back in the studio working on a collaboration with iconic Iranian singer Googoosh.

Lauderdale currently serves on the boards of the Oregon Symphony, Pioneer Courthouse Square, Oregon Historical Society, The Confluence Project with Maya Lin, and Derek Rieth Foundation. He lives in Portland with his partner, pianist Hunter Noack.

China Forbes was born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and graduated cum laude from Harvard, where she majored 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 M. Lauderdale, Forbes performed in Off-Broadway and regional theaters, and as a singer-songwriter in New York City clubs.

Forbes became the lead singer of Pink Martini in 1995 and has co-written many of the bands most beloved songs with Lauderdale, starting with “Sympathique (Je ne veux pas travailler),” 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’s directorial debut film Infinitely Polar Bear. In May 2024, Forbes released The Road—her first solo album in 15 years—which features all original songs, including the single “Full Circle” and “Rise,” a deeply hopeful and personal song that highlights mental health challenges and suicide prevention. She is the recipient of the 2022 Ella Fitzgerald Award at the Montreal International Jazz Festival.

Storm Large has been singing since the age of five. A graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, she moved to San Francisco and later to Portland, where she founded her band Storm and the Balls. The Balls developed a cult-like following in clubs for their mash-ups of artists like ABBA, Billy Idol, Led Zeppelin, and Olivia Newton-John, as well as their own compositions. Large shot to national prominence in 2006 as a finalist on the CBS show Rock Star: Supernova, where—despite having been eliminated in the week before the finale—she built a fan base that follows her around the world to this day. Her autobiographical musical memoir Crazy Enough played to packed houses in 2009 during its unprecedented 21-week sold-out run at Portland Center Stage. She went on to perform a cabaret version of the show to critical acclaim at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Adelaide Festival in Australia, and Joe’s Pub in New York City. Crazy Enough, released as a book by Simon & Schuster in 2012, was named “Oprah’s Book of the Week” and earned the 2013 Oregon Book Award for Creative Nonfiction.

Large made her debut with Pink Martini in April 2011, singing four sold-out concerts with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. She continues to perform with the band, touring nationally and internationally, and appears on the band’s most recent albums Get Happy and Je dis oui! She debuted with the Oregon Symphony in 2010 and made her Carnegie Hall debut in May 2013, singing Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra as part of the Spring for Music festival. In fall 2014, Large and her new band released the album Le Bonheur, a collection of tortured and titillating love songs from the American Songbook that are beautiful, familiar, yet twisted—much like the lady herself. In 2021, Large shot to national prominence yet again in prime-time television, this time wowing the judges with several performances on NBC’s America’s Got Talent, reaching the semifinals.

Ari Shapiro is a host of NPR’s flagship evening news program All Things Considered and the podcast Consider This. As a journalist, he has reported from above the Arctic Circle and aboard Air Force One. He has covered wars in Iraq, Ukraine, and Israel, and he has filed stories from dozens of countries and most of the 50 states. He has won, among other prizes, three Edward R. Murrow Awards, most recently for a reporting project in which he traveled the world connecting climate change to global migration and political extremism. Before joining the All Things Considered host team in 2015, he was NPR’s international correspondent based in London. Shapiro also spent four years as NPR’s White House Correspondent.

Shapiro began performing and recording with Pink Martini in 2008. He has appeared on four of the band’s albums, singing in half a dozen languages. Since his debut with the band at the Hollywood Bowl, he has performed in some of the world’s most storied venues. He has shared a stage with both Chita and Rita (Rivera and Moreno, respectively), among many others. With actor Alan Cumming, he created a two-man show called Och and Oy! A Considered Cabaret, which they continue to perform across the country. Shapiro also continues to tour his original solo cabaret show, Thank You For Listening. He is host of the reality competition The Mole on Netflix, and his debut memoir, The Best Strangers In the World: Stories from a Life Spent Listening, was an instant New York Times bestseller. He has been a clue in The New York Times crossword puzzle and an answer on Jeopardy.

Born in Jalisco, Mexico, and currently based on Portland, Oregon, Edna Vazquez is a fearless singer, songwriter, and guitarist whose powerful voice and musical talent transcend the boundaries of language to engage and uplift her audience. Her original music crosses the genres of alternative rock, folk, pop, and R&B seamlessly and delivers a message of light, love, and cultural healing. Her passion for music and education have lead her to empower youth and the community through workshops and projects with the BRAVO Youth Orchestras, Young Audiences, and Carnegie Hall’s Lullaby Project with the Oregon Symphony. After releasing her album Sola Soy, Vazquez began to perform at venues nationwide, including Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center. She has also performed at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas as part of a special performance with Flor de Toloache and Natalia Lafourcade. Her album with Pink Martini, Bésame Mucho, was released in 2019. She is currently touring with the band as a featured guest vocalist.

Jimmie Herrod is an artist and performer based in Portland, Oregon. He earned a bachelor’s degree in music composition and performance from Cornish College of the Arts, and a master’s degree in jazz studies from Portland State University. While he currently serves as an adjunct professor of jazz voice, he remains an active performer, both as soloist and collaborator. Herrod has worked in Seattle’s lauded musical theater scene at ArtsWest and the 5th Avenue Theatre. Recent performance highlights include being a featured soloist with the Oregon Symphony’s showcase in the 2018 TedX series, working with international acts such as ODESZA, and being a regular guest vocalist with Pink Martini. In 2018, he recorded “Exodus,” his first single with Pink Martini. The following year, he released an EP with the band, Tomorrow.

In spring 2021, Herrod was requested to audition for the hit NBC show America’s Got Talent, where he quickly became both a judge and fan favorite, winning a coveted golden ticket for his incredible vocal performance of “Tomorrow.”

Shoshana Bean can currently be seen starring in Alicia Keys’s new hit Broadway musical Hell’s Kitchen. Bean’s portrayal of Jersey earned her a second Tony nomination, in addition to Drama League and Drama Desk nominations. Her performance in the Public Theater’s Off-Broadway production of Hell’s Kitchen earned her a Lucille Lortel nomination. In 2022, Bean received Tony and Grammy nominations, as well as Outer Critics Circle and Drama League nominations for her starring role as Susan Young opposite Billy Crystal in Broadway’s Mr. Saturday Night. She previously starred on Broadway as the first replacement for Elphaba in Wicked and as Jenna in Waitress. Her six independent studio albums and EPs have landed her on top of the iTunes and Billboard charts, including the peak position on the Billboard Jazz Chart.

Bean has sold out concerts around the globe and lent her voice to countless films and television shows, including The Boys, Sing, Sing 2, Enchanted, Jersey Boys, Glee, and Galavant. She made her Broadway debut in the original cast of Hairspray, appeared Off-Broadway in the 2000 revival of Godspell, and was featured the New York City Center Encores! production of Songs for a New World. She won an IRNE Award for her performance as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl and earned a Jeff Award nomination for her portrayal of CeeCee Bloom in the pre-Broadway musical production of Beaches. She has also appeared in Bloodline, Bill & Ted Face the Music, “50 Years of Broadway’s Best” on the Great Performances series, and a solo concert special for PBS.