Q & A With Thomas Lauderdale of Pink Martini
Monday, May 18, 2015
On Tuesday and Wednesday night of this week the Oregon Symphony and Pink Martini will perform a Classical Menagerie. The music will be led both by Pink Martini’s Thomas Lauderdale and Oregon Symphony’s Carlos Kalmar. Fan favorite China Forbes will be a special guest.
Pink Martini has long since become an international phenomenon and it is always nice to have them back here at home. This week’s show will put a salsa spin on Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf and have a little fun with a menagerie of classical favorites and plenty more. As a veteran of more than a dozen Pink Martini shows, I was excited to have a chance to catch up with Thomas Lauderdale on the road this week. Here’s what we talked about:
Hi there. Thank you for taking the time to speak with me. Where am I catching you and what are you up to there?
Right now we’re just leaving Tulsa, Oklahoma heading to Austin. Our bus was five hours late so we’ve just been scamping around in the streets of Tulsa. It’s a great city. It reminds me of Omaha, Nebraska. Next up is Austin, where we’ll play Austin City Limits then we’re off to Waco before we return to Portland.
You have two shows coming up with the Oregon Symphony. When did you first perform with them?
Well the first time was in 1998. The show felt hideous. Fortunately, they invited us back the next year and it was so much better and we never looked back. Symphony orchestras are very important to our success in America. Symphonies -- and NPR -- helped make us here.
When I was in Italy a few years ago, I heard Pink Martini on the radio several times. Your music has been huge all over Europe since the release of your first album. Tell me about that experience?
Sympathique, the title song of our first album, became and overnight success in France, which was inadvertent. It was nominated for “Song of the Year” at France’s Victoires de la Musique Awards (their version of the Grammy’s), and to this day remains a mantra (“Je ne veux pas travailler” or “I don’t want to work”) for striking French workers. We’re very much an American band, but we spend a lot of time abroad and therefore have the incredible diplomatic opportunity to represent a broader, more inclusive America.
Can you tell me what our readers should expect when they show up next week?
Well I am currently on the board of the Oregon Symphony and we wanted to do something different. Our shows next week are totally conceptually different from all our other concerts, even those with symphony orchestras. We will perform material we’ve never or rarely ever played.
We did an Afro-cuban rendition of Prokofiev’s Peter & the Wolf in 2007 which we will be performing but this this will be an all new orchestration. We will also play Ned Rorem's jazz-inspired Lions. The music of the evening is very much centered on animals. The Pacific Youth Choir is performing backup vocals. Oh and Emilio Delgado -- Luis from Sesame Street – will be narrating Peter & the Wolf.
There was picture with sitting next to Ted Nugent at the State of the Union a couple years ago. Was that real? Did you have a chance to chat with him at all?
I have never had more interview requests than after that. Yes it was real and it was totally unplanned. Some guy comes in and there was a flash and flurry of photos. I had to ask the woman next to me who it was. She told me and then filled me in that he was very critical of the president. I was there as a guest of Congressman Earl Blumenauer and the seating next to him was happenstance. We spent a couple hours talking about hunting, which I know nothing about, USO shows, and music. I asked if he’d ever played with a symphony orchestra, which he had not.
I was surprised at the response I got from some fans, suggesting they may burn our albums and never listen to me again. We were there for a couple hours before the speech and just talked. He is just a human and is entitled to his opinions even though I disagree with him.
We are playing in his hometown, Waco, later this week and I thought about calling to see if he would join us on stage. I’m not sure I can set it up, but that would be fun.
Is this type performance going to sustain symphony orchestras?
The symphony should be the town band. It should. The Oregon Symphony played in a prison, toured around the state, and did a sing along in pioneer square. We’re expanding mission of the symphony and educating the public.
Our shows next week are different. The music is fun an accessible. It’s not going to feel like a symphony orchestra. I serve on the board of the Oregon Symphony so want to see it thrive.
I want to ask you about civic activities for a minute. You had a close connection with Gretchen Kafoury (the former City Commissioner who recently passed away). Her advocacy for the poor in Portland remains unparalleled. Just days before passing she was at City Hall pressing them to do more. In her absence, has anyone filled that void?
No. Nobody is stepping up. I interned for Gretchen and I worked in Portland’s civil rights ordinance, affordable housing issues and legalizing pot belly pigs as pets in Portland. I had a great connection with her and it is a loss. Unfortunately, nobody is stepping up.
As it stands, the public is totally unreasonable in their expectation from our elected officials. There’s also disconnect between them and the lives of ordinary folks. City Hall used to be so open an accessible. You could walk in and easily get a meet with a City Commissioner. Now there is a total disconnect. Meanwhile, we have a steady stream of newcomers to Portland who have no idea how to break into the civic scene in Portland which leaves them isolated and worsens the problems. It is really unfortunate.
If you could ensure the article I’m posting says one thing about Pink Martini or anything in the world, what would it be?
A great thing about Portland is it that it is a great place to experiment and try. If you buck up and make mistakes you always get a second chance. I hope that people keep daring and also take the time to understand the history of Portland and the temperament of our state so that we are all making choices based on more than raw emotion.
Thomas: I took out the occupy part. I’m not sure I captured the essence of it in a way that wouldn’t cause heartburn with those still around.
Pink Martini and the Oregon Symphony will perform on May 19 and 20 at 7:30 pm at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Tickets begin at $35 and can be purchased online or at the Oregon Symphony Ticket Office, 923 SW Washington St., in downtown Portland (M-F, 10 am-6 pm); by phone at (503) 228-1353 or (800) 228-7343 (M-F, 10 am-9 pm); and at the concert hall box office starting two hours before the performance.
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