Pink Martini with China Forbes - Opening Nights

FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY

PINK MARTINI WITH CHINA FORBES

CHANGING THE LIVES THAT CHANGE THE WORLD

Carlos

PLATINUM

GOLD

ERIC

SILVER

MIKEY

BRONZE

WELCOME TO OPENING NIGHTS

Opening Nights at Florida State University is excited to bring the very best performing arts, music, dance, comedy, literature and visual arts to our campus and community.

In March, the lineup continues with the best in music and stage beginning with Pink Martini, featuring China Forbes. Jazz at Lincoln Center takes center stage at The Moon with Sing and Swing, featuring renowned jazz artists Bria Skonberg and Benny Benack. Stage and screen legend Mandy Patinkin and award- winning author Jesmyn Ward will also perform. Emerging bluegrass artists Damn Tall Building will put on a show at Goodwood Museum and Gardens.

Finally, April brings multiple collaborations for the visual arts, music education, community outreach and family programs. The month kicks off with seven-time Grammy® Award winner Terence Blanchard with the E-Collective and the Turtle Island Quartet, a special partnership event with the FSU College of Music.

April continues with our annual collaboration with the Chain of Parks Art Festival. Dean Mitchell is the featured artist this year. A partnership with Word of South will bring Rising Appalachia to town for a free community concert. Opening Nights will conclude its 2023–24 season with the iconic folk duo Indigo Girls on May 1.

We cannot think of a better time and opportunity to become a member of Opening Nights and to show your support of our mission to present exceptional artists. These performances create a thriving cultural life in our community and create priceless educational experiences on campus and throughout the community. Ask any Opening Nights associate about these philanthropic opportunities.

Thank you for sharing our season with us. We look forward to many more outstanding performances coming your way in 2024, Tallahassee’s bicentennial year.

Florida State University

Richard McCullough President

Opening Nights Staff

Allison Jordan Development Director

Grace Atkins Program & Operations Manager

Brad Lister Business & Patron Services Manager

Calla MacNamara Education & Engagement Manager

Noelle Enright Marketing & Communications Associate

Amanda Cole Senior Marketing Designer, University Marketing

Rodney H. Johnson Director of Digital Design & UX, University Marketing

Opening Nights Development Council

Eric Friall, Chair

Ron Sachs, Vice Chair

Gus Corbella, Immediate-Past Chair

Susan Stratton, Secretary

Kathleen Daly

Brooke Hallock

Heather Mitchell

Nan Nagy

Tom Nelson

Florida State University Partners

Office of the President

College of Fine Arts

College of Music

English Department

Challenger Learning Center

FAMU-FSU College of Engineering

University Relations

University Communications

UPCOMING PERFORMANCES

MARCH

4 Pink Martini with China Forbes World, Orchestra

7 Sing and Swing – A Jazz at Lincoln Center Presents Production featuring Bria Skonberg and Benny Benack III Jazz, Swing

9 Mandy Patinkin in Concert: Being Alive with Adam Ben-David on Piano Broadway, Vocalist

18 Jesmyn Ward Author

21 Damn Tall Buildings Bluegrass

APRIL

5 Terence Blanchard featuring The E-Collective and Turtle Island Quartet Jazz

6 Dinosaur World Live! Family, Educational

18 Chain of Parks Art Festival Presenting Artist Dean Mitchell Visual Art

27 Rising Appalachia Rock, Blues

MAY 1 Indigo Girls Rock

THEATRE TCC! 2023-24 SEASON COME JOURNEY WITH US!

Something Wicked This Way Comes

By Ray Bradbury

When the carnival comes to town, two boys unearth the terrifying and horrible secrets that lurk within Cooger and Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show and learn the consequences of wishes, as a sinister and evil force is at work in Green Town, Illinois.

October 12-14 at 8 p.m.

October 20 & 21 at 8 p.m.

October 22 at 2 p.m.

The Shape of Things

By Neil Labute

A young student drifts into an ever-changing relationship with an art major while his best friend’s engagement crumbles, unleashing a drama that peels back the skin of two modern-day relationships.

November 16-18 at 8 p.m.

December 1 & 2 at 8 p.m.

December 3 at 2 p.m.

Legally Blonde

Book by Heather Hach

Music and Lyrics By Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin

The ultimate tribute to girl power, Legally Blonde will take you from the UCLA sorority house to the Harvard halls of justice with the timely coming-of-age story of Broadway’s brightest heroine.

April 4-6 at 8 p.m.

April 12 & 13 at 8 p.m.

April 14 at 2 p.m.

Herb & Mary Jervis

Congratulations Opening Nights for fostering the Arts in Tallahassee for the past 26 years.

The students, faculty, and staff of FSU and the citizens of north Florida have been enriched by your efforts.

We eagerly await what the next 26 years will bring.

2023–24 MEMBERS

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For more information & to become a member, visit openingnights.fsu.edu/support/ membership or contact Allison Jordan, Director of Development at 850.778.7139 or allison. jordan@fsu.edu.

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Sally Karioth & Amanda Karioth Thompson thank Opening Nights for their commitment to the arts in our community

Ken Kato & Nan Nagy

Proud Supporters of Opening Nights

Opening Nights, Opening Doors is a partner program of Prime Meridian Bank, FSU Opening Nights, and the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Big Bend. Now in its third year, the program provides on-campus experiences for Club members to inspire a vision of future opportunities in the areas of engineering, nursing, hospitality, and (coming soon) media and the arts.

MONDAY, MARCH 4

Ruby Diamond Concert Hall • 7:30 PM

Pink Martini with China Forbes

Featuring a dozen musicians with songs in 25 languages, Pink Martini performs its multilingual repertoire on concert stages and with symphony orchestras throughout Europe, Asia, Greece, Turkey, the Middle East, Northern Africa, Australia, New Zealand, South America and North America. Pink Martini made its European debut at the Cannes Film Festival in 1997 and its orchestral debut with the Oregon Symphony in 1998 under the direction of Norman Leyden. Since then, the band has gone on to play with more than 70 orchestras around the world, including multiple engagements with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, the Boston Pops, the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center, the San Francisco Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Sydney Symphony at the Sydney Opera House, and the BBC Concert Orchestra at Royal Albert Hall in London.

Continued on pg. 19

“Perhaps the best experience in classical music.”

The Austin-American Statesman

GUS & AMANDA CORBELLA

Pink Martini

Continued from pg. 17

In 1994, in his hometown of Portland, Oregon, Thomas Lauderdale was working in politics, thinking he would run for mayor one day. Like other eager politicians-in-training, he went to every political fundraiser under the sun… but was dismayed to find the music at these events underwhelming, lackluster, loud, and unneighborly. Drawing inspiration from music from all over the world—crossing genres of classical, jazz and old-fashioned pop—and hoping to appeal to conservatives and liberals alike, he founded the “little orchestra” Pink Martini in 1994. His aim? To provide more beautiful and inclusive musical soundtracks for political fundraisers supporting causes such as civil rights, affordable housing, the environment, libraries, public broadcasting, education, and parks.

One year later, Lauderdale called China Forbes, a Harvard classmate living in New York City, and asked her to join Pink Martini. They began to write songs together. Their first, “Sympathique,” was an overnight sensation in France and nominated for Song of the Year at the Victoires de la Musique Awards. To this day, it remains a mantra for striking workers: “Je ne veux pas travailler (I don’t want to work).”

Pink Martini has sold well over 3 million albums worldwide on their own independent label Heinz Records (named after Lauderdale’s dog). In 2016, Pink Martini released its ninth studio album, Je dis oui!, which features vocals from China Forbes, Storm Large, Ari Shapiro, fashion guru Ikram Goldman, civil rights activist Kathleen Saadat, and Rufus Wainwright. The album’s 15 tracks span eight languages (French, Farsi, Armenian, Portuguese, Arabic, Turkish, Xhosa and English), and affirm the band’s

history of global inclusivity and collaborative spirit. In 2019, Pink Martini collaborated on a new release with the international singing sensation Meow Meow, entitled Hotel Amour, and also released two 5-song EPs, Besame Mucho, featuring regular guest singer Edna Vazquez, and Tomorrow, featuring regular guest singer Jimmie Herrod, a finalist on 2021’s season of NBC’s America’s Got Talent. During their pandemic hiatus, the band released two new digital singles written by Thomas Lauderdale, China Forbes, and producer Jim Bianco, “Let’s Be Friends,” and “The Lemonade Song,” which has over 10 million streams on Spotify alone.

Featuring more than a dozen musicians, Pink Martini performs its multilingual repertoire throughout 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. 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. In its 20th year, Pink Martini was inducted into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame and the Oregon Music Hall of Fame. In November of 2024, Pink Martini will celebrate its 30th anniversary!

PERINATAL

Dr. Adanna Amanze

Jonathan Brantley

Janet R. Thornton

@openingnights

@openingnights

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Opening Nights at Florida State University

Law Office of Linda P. Bailey, P.A.

Gus

Berger Singerman proudly supports Florida State University's Opening Nights and its efforts in bolstering arts education within the Tallahassee community

UPCOMING PERFORMANCES

MARCH

7 Sing and Swing – A Jazz at Lincoln Center Presents Production featuring Bria Skonberg & Benny Benack III Jazz, Swing

9 Mandy Patinkin in Concert: Being Alive with Adam Ben-David on Piano Broadway, Vocalist

18 Jesmyn Ward Author

21 Damn Tall Buildings Bluegrass

APRIL

5 Terence Blanchard featuring The E-Collective and Turtle Island Quartet Jazz

6 Dinosaur World Live! Family, Educational

18 Chain of Parks Art Festival Presenting Artist Dean Mitchell Visual Art

27 Rising Appalachia Rock, Blues

MAY

1 Indigo Girls Rock

Dinosaur World Live!

Dean Mitchell

Jesmyn Ward

Sing and Swing

Terence Blanchard