CHRISTOPHER DRAGON, conductor
Friday, February 13, 2026 at 7:30pm
Saturday, February 14, 2026 at 7:30pm
Boettcher Concert Hall
CONCERT RUN TIME IS APPROXIMATELY 2 HOURS INCLUDING A 20 MINUTE INTERMISSION.
Friday’s concert is sponsored by norma Horner & JoHn estes saturday’s concert is sponsored by Genesee mountain Foundation
COLORADO SYMPHONY IS PROUDLY SUPPORTED BY
“This is rich, hugely approachable music, utterly cosmopolitan yet utterly unpretentious. And it seems to speak to just about everybody ... ” –The Washington Post
Now in its 31st year, the unstoppable engine of joy that is Pink Martini continues to bring founder Thomas Lauderdale’s mission of multi-cultural connection and inclusion to concert stages on six continents. Presenting a mélange of catchy old-fashioned pop, global color, foot-tapping big band sound, and Hollywood glamour, Oregon’s most famous “little orchestra” performs music intended to appeal to everyone regardless of age or background.
Wanting an antidote to the lackluster bands playing fundraisers for his favorite causes, Lauderdale had a vision to bring more beautiful and inclusive musical soundtracks to galas for civil rights, affordable housing, the environment, libraries, public broadcasting, education, and parks. Drawing inspiration in music from all over the world, and hoping to appeal to conservatives and liberals alike, he founded Pink Martini in 1994. A year later, Lauderdale called China Forbes, his friend from Harvard, and asked her to join the ensemble; she relocated to Portland to become the band’s first full-time lead singer, and soon collaborated with Lauderdale on a number of the band’s favorite original songs.
As the band grew beyond its humble beginnings, Lauderdale lovingly welcomed more and more incredible musicians into the band’s family with open arms, creating regular collaborations with a wide variety of gifted singers, including the inimitable Storm Large, NPR’s dashing Ari Shapiro, the soulful Edna Vazquez, America’s Got Talent finalist Jimmie Herrod, and international singing sensation Meow Meow. On record, the band has also worked with iconic talents such as Japanese superstar Saori Yuki, Iranian legend Googoosh, Rufus Wainwright, Michael Feinstein, Georges Moustaki, Jimmie Scott, and many more.
Featuring a dozen musicians, Pink Martini performs songs in over 25 languages around the world. Says Lauderdale, “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... the America which remains the most heterogeneously populated country in the world... composed of people of every country, every language, every religion.” The band made its European debut at the Cannes Film Festival in 1997 and its orchestral debut with the Oregon Symphony the following year. Since then, Pink Martini has played with more than 75 orchestras internationally, including Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston Pops, National Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, and the BBC Concert Orchestra at London’s Royal Albert Hall. Other appearances include a performance at the official post-Oscars celebration Governors Ball, four sold-out concerts at Carnegie Hall, the opening party of the remodeled Museum of Modern Art in New York, multiple sellouts and a festival opening at Montreal Jazz Festival, and multiple appearances, including sellouts, at the Hollywood Bowl and Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles.
On its in-house label Heinz Records, Pink Martini has sold millions of albums worldwide and released over a dozen recordings. Pink Martini released the acclaimed EP Bella ciao in Spring 2025, featuring the anti-fascist title track sung by Storm Large. Early in 2026, the band will unveil its full-length collaborative release with Googoosh, and plans to have a new album out by the end of 2026. During China Forbes’s current sabbatical, the perpetually energetic and evolving band will continue to tour internationally with a number of its favorite singers, sharing its message of global community and joy through its music. Visit www.pinkmartini.com for more information.
Raised on a plant nursery in rural Indiana, Pink Martini bandleader Thomas M. Lauderdale began piano lessons at age six with Patricia Garrison. When his family moved to Portland in 1982, he began studying with Sylvia Killman, who served as his coach and mentor until her passing in 2023. Thomas has appeared as a soloist with numerous orchestras and ensembles, including the Oregon Symphony, the Seattle Symphony, Portland Youth Philharmonic, Chamber Music Northwest and several collaborations with Oregon Ballet Theatre. In 2008, he played Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F with the Oregon Symphony under the direction of Christoph Campestrini.
Active in Oregon politics since a student at U.S. Grant High School (where he was student body president), Thomas served under Portland Mayor Bud Clark and Oregon governor Neil Goldschmidt. In 1991, he worked under Portland City Commissioner Gretchen Kafoury on the drafting and passage of the city’s civil rights ordinance. He graduated with honors from Harvard with a degree in History and Literature in 1992. He spent most of his collegiate years, however, in cocktail dresses, taking on the role of “cruise director” … throwing waltzes with live orchestras and ice sculptures, disco masquerades with gigantic pineapples on wheels, midnight swimming parties, and operating a Tuesday night coffeehouse called Café Mardi.
Instead of running for political office, 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 marking three decades as bandleader of Pink Martini, Lauderdale has also completed three long awaited collaborations with longtime friends in the last decade. In 2018 he completed Love for Sale, an album of jazz standards with singer/ civil rights leader Kathleen Saadat, that began as a gift to a few friends and ended up being a Billboard Jazz charts-ranking album the month it was released. In 2019, Thomas Lauderdale and members of Pink Martini collaborated with the international singing sensation Meow Meow on Hotel Amour. Spring of 2023 saw the release of Thomas Lauderdale Meets the Pilgrims, his collaboration with Portland’s own surf-rock indie icons, Satan’s Pilgrims that was three decades in the making. Currently, he is collaborating with the iconic Iranian singer Googoosh, on a forthcoming album, and working on new tracks with Pink Martini.
On top of being bandleader and pianist for Pink Martini, Lauderdale currently serves on the boards of the Oregon Symphony, Pioneer Courthouse Square, and the Confluence Project with Maya Lin. He lives in Portland with his partner Hunter Noack.
Storm Large: musician, actor, playwright, author, awesome. She 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, Storm built a fan base that follows her around the world to this day. She was seen on the 2021 season of America’s Got Talent.
Storm spent the 90s singing in clubs throughout San Francisco. Tired of the club scene, she moved to Portland to pursue a new career as a chef, but a last-minute cancellation in 2002 at the Portland club “Dante’s” turned into a standing Wednesday night engagement for Storm and her new band, The Balls. It wasn’t long before Storm had a cult-like following in Portland, and a renewed singing career that was soon to be launched onto the international stage.
In the 18-19 season, Storm performed her one-woman autobiographical musical memoir Crazy Enough at La Jolla Music Society and Portland Center Stage, celebrating the show’s ten-year anniversary. Recent engagements include debuts with the Philly Pops, members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and the Seattle Symphony, as well as return engagements with the Houston, Detroit, Toronto, and BBC Symphonies; the New York Pops; and the Louisville Orchestra, with whom she recorded the 2017 album All In. Storm continues to tour concert halls across the country with her band Le Bonheur and as a special guest on Michael Feinstein’s Shaken & Stirred tour. Alongside Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey, Storm joined Michael Feinstein as special guest with the Pasadena Pops.
Storm made her debut as guest vocalist with the band 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 she is featured on their album Get Happy. Storm has also sung with Grammy winner k.d. lang, pianist Kirill Gerstein, punk rocker John Doe, singer/songwriter Rufus Wainwright, and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer George Clinton.
She debuted with the Oregon Symphony in 2010, and has returned for sold out performances each year thereafter. Storm made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2013, singing Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins with the Detroit Symphony as part of the Spring for Music Festival. The NY Times called her “sensational,” and the classical music world instantly had a new star.
In 2007, Storm starred in Portland Center Stage’s production of Cabaret with Wade McCollum. The show was a smash hit, earning Large glowing reviews. Her next endeavor, the musical memoir Crazy Enough, played to packed houses in 2009 during its unprecedented 21-week sold out run in Portland. Storm went on to perform a cabaret version of the show to critical acclaim at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Adelaide Festival in Australia, and Joe’s Pub in New York. Her memoir, Crazy Enough, was released by Simon and Schuster in 2012, named Oprah’s Book of the Week, and awarded the 2013 Oregon Book Award for Creative Nonfiction.
Storm is featured in Rid of Me, a film by Portlander James Westby, starring Katie O’Grady and Theresa Russell. In 2010, she starred at the Mark Taper Forum with Katey Sagal and Michael McKean in Jerry Zak’s production of Harps and Angels, a musical featuring the work of Randy Newman.
In the fall of 2014, Storm & Le Bonheur released a record designed to capture their sublime and subversive interpretations of the American Songbook. Entitled simply Le Bonheur and released on Pink Martini’s Heinz Records, the recording is a collection of tortured and titillating love songs: beautiful, familiar, yet twisted … much like the lady herself.
Edna Vazquez is a fearless singer, songwriter, composer, and guitarist whose powerful voice and musical talent transcend the boundaries of language to engage and uplift her audience. She is a creative musical artist with a vocal range that allows her to paint seamlessly with her original material, an intersection of Mexican Tradicional, rock, pop and other genres. Edna’s passion for music and performance grew from her bicultural roots and, with songs deeply rooted in universal human emotion, she has traveled far and wide spreading her message of light, love and cultural healing.
Vazquez has grown as a musical artist and collaborator over the last years, touring all over the world since 2017 with the acclaimed “little orchestra” Pink Martini, while still performing as a solo artist as well. In the past, she led her own band projects, the Edna Vazquez Quartet, the rock band No Passengers, and the latest, the Edna Vazquez Band. Vazquez also participated in the Latin Grammys with the all-female mariachi fusion band from New York City, Latin Grammy 2017 winners, Flor de Toloache and accompanying Natalia Lafourcade that night.
In 2022, as a soloist, Vazquez participated in two great events, one in Canto en Resistencia (Power to the People!) with the LA Philharmonic, with Davendra Banhardt, Ile, Silvana Estrada, Rodrigo Amarante, Jorge Glem, and conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. She also appeared at The Hollywood Bowl with the acclaimed pianist Lang Lang and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, performing DESTINO (1946), a film collaboration between Salvador Dalí and Walt Disney.
With Pink Martini, Edna Vazquez has performed with major Symphonies and in legendary concert venues all over the world, including London’s Royal Albert Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, Red Rocks, the Montreal Jazz Festival, and many more.
In 2017, Vazquez released an EP album with Pink Martini entitled “Besame Mucho” and featuring her original single “Sola Soy.” And in the Summer of 2025, Edna Vazquez released her new album “Te Esperaba,” a collection of mostly original compositions based in traditional Northern Mexican styles like Banda and Norteño, and also in traditional Mariachi. Edna is proud to continue to venture into these traditionally male-dominated genres with her powerful interpretive voice.
Australian conductor Christopher Dragon is the Music Director of Greensboro Symphony Orchestra, newly appointed Music Director of the Philly Pops, former Music Director of the Wyoming Symphony Orchestra and is the Resident Conductor of the Colorado Symphony. He joined the Colorado Symphony in the 2015/2016 Season as Associate Conductor – a position he held for four years. For three years prior, Dragon held the inaugural position of Assistant Conductor with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, which gave him the opportunity to work closely with Principal Conductor Asher Fisch.
Dragon has a versatile portfolio ranging from live-to-picture performances including Nightmare Before Christmas, Toy Story and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, a wide variety of collaborations with artists such as the Wu-Tang Clan, Cynthia Erivo and Joshua Bell, to standard and contemporary orchestral repertoire such as Danny Elfman’s Percussion Concerto; all areas of which he has become highly sought after. Christopher has become known for his charisma, high energy and affinity for a good costume, consistently delivering unforgettable performances that has made him an audience favourite.
Recent highlights include his sold-out symphony tour with Gregory Alan Isakov, which included debuts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Nashville Symphony, a new orchestral collaboration with Nathaniel Rateliff and his successful German debut with the WDR Funkhausorchester.
Christopher is highly sought after as a guest conductor and has worked with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, Nashville Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Utah Symphony, Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Pacific Symphony, Omaha Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Chicago Philharmonic, Pacific Symphony, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfônica de Porto Alegre and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. In Australia, he has guest conducted the Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and West Australian Symphony Orchestras. His 2015 debut performance at the Sydney Opera House with John Pyke and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra was released on album by ABC Music and won an ARIA the following year.
He has also conducted at numerous festivals including the Breckenridge and Bangalow Music Festivals, with both resulting in immediate re-invitations. At the beginning of 2016 Dragon conducted Wynton Marsalis’ Swing Symphony as part of the Perth International Art Festival alongside Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.
Christopher began his conducting studies in 2011 and was a member of the prestigious Symphony Services International Conductor Development Program in Australia under the guidance of course director Christopher Seaman. He has also studied with numerous distinguished conductors including Leonid Grin, Paavo and Neeme Jarvi at the Jarvi Summer Festival, Fabio Luisi at the Pacific Music Festival and conducting pedagogue Jorma Panula.
