French nightclub, on the Moss Arts Center stage on Saturday, Oct. 30, at 7:30 p.m. The performance marks the 12-member group’s live debut in the MAC’s Anne and Ellen Fife Theatre, located within the Street and Davis Performance Hall at 190 Alumni Mall. The group will be joined by singer China Forbes.
Earlier, Pink Martini bandleader/pianist and founder Thomas Lauderdale and Forbes streamed a rollicking cabaret evening of music and conversation in the Moss Arts Center’s “HomeStage” series.
Lauderdale founded the Pink Martini in 1994 to provide beautiful and inclusive musical soundtracks for political fundraisers for such causes as civil rights, affordable housing, the environment, libraries, public broadcasting, education, and parks.
A year later, he asked his former Harvard classmate Forbes to join the ensemble. They began to write songs together, and their first song, “Sympathique (Je ne veux pas travailler),” became an overnight sensation in France and to this day remains a mantra (“Je ne veux pas travailler” means “I don’t want to work.”) for striking French workers.
Pink Martini has performed its multilingual repertoire at opera houses, concert halls, film festivals, museums, and fashion shows around the world. The ensemble has released 11 studio albums and was inducted into both the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame and the Oregon Music Hall of Fame in 2014.
Tickets for the performance are $40 to $75 for the general public and $10 for Virginia Tech students. Tickets can be purchased online; at the Moss Arts Center’s box office, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday; or by calling 540-231-5300 during box office hours.
