Category Archives: Thomas Lauderdale

Thomas Lauderdale

Pink Martini

“At one moment, you feel like you’re in the middle of a samba parade in Rio de Janeiro, and in the next moment, you are suddenly in a French music hall of the 1930s or in a palazzo in Napoli. It’s like an urban musical travelogue.”

That’s how Pink Martini founder Thomas Lauderdale describes his band’s style of music. I heard Lauderdale play a rousing interpretation of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue last night at a Pops Concert with Oregon’s Sunriver Music Festival. Lauderdale comes by his global music perspective from experience having been raised in a multicultural family. I was captivated by his powerful and playful piano playing — he is at the top of his game.