Answers from Thomas Lauderdale, pianist, bandleader and founder of Pink Martini
Pink Martini regularly plays world-class concert halls and major cities, but you also make a point to tour smaller communities like Wenatchee. What draws you to performing in towns and venues of this scale?
The audiences in small towns and more out of the way locations are the most exuberant. Not as many nationally touring acts come through, and they are grateful and gracious to the ones like us that do. And it’s just as, if not more important for these communities to have the arts and live music as it is for major cities. America is becoming more urban, but also more divided and isolated. Music brings people together; it creates literal harmony. And there are some lovely smaller surprising benefits to playing smaller communities, like the food! The catering is local and the meals are delicious- we have had fresh caught local salmon in Homer, Alaska, Southern bbq in Boone, North Carolina and kalua pork and fresh pineapple in Hawaii.
From the performer’s perspective, how does the energy or connection with the audience change in a smaller performing arts center compared to a large metropolitan venue?
We have played everywhere from Carnegie Hall and Royal Albert Hall to Vashon Island PAC and Kodiak Island, where the only venue is the local high school. Obviously there is a lot of majesty and elegance in those iconic venues, but there is an intimacy and familiarity that comes with playing smaller venues that we also love. If there is any connection between one of the bandmembers or guests on stage and that community, everyone in the audience knows about it and goes wild for it. That doesn’t happen- or there isn’t the same exuberance- in London and New York City. And some of our very best dance contests and conga lines have been in small towns, too.
This performance pairs Pink Martini with the local Wenatchee Valley Symphony Orchestra. What excites you about collaborating with regional orchestras, and what do you feel these partnerships bring to both the music and the community?
I’m a huge proponent and fan of orchestras, choirs, ballets, community arts. I love the sound of Pink Martini playing with orchestras, and I think our fans do too. I’m on board of the Oregon Symphony in my hometown of Portland, and I know how important and difficult it is for regional orchestras to stay afloat. Ideally, collaborations like these concerts with the Wenatchee Symphony expand our fanbase, and help keep the orchestra alive and thriving, too.
Do you see touring smaller communities as part of a broader cultural or civic mission for the band?
Oh absolutely yes. I didn’t set out to create world peace, or even a 30 year music carrier- I thought I was going to run for mayor of Portland someday! But local civics are the very genesis of the band.
I like to say that my vision of Pink Martini is what might have been the band playing in the lobby of the United Nations, in 1962.
For communities that don’t often host internationally known acts, what do you hope a Pink Martini concert leaves behind—beyond the performance itself?
Well, we hope that we leave a bit of international flavor and glamour, a little taste of the world beyond those communities, but not in some exotic way. Music is present in all cultures and societies, and vital in all communities. I hope we leave people with a little more joy and connection, and a sense of just how big- and small- the world really is.
