China Forbes
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
China Forbes is an American singer and songwriter, and the lead singer of Pink Martini. Born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, she comes from a multiracial background. Her father is Cameron D. Forbes and her mother is Peggy Woodford Forbes. She also has a sister, Maya C. Forbes.
She attended Phillips Exeter Academy ('88), then studied visual arts at Harvard University ('92), where she met fellow student Thomas M Lauderdale, a classically-trained pianist. They became friends and met regularly to play music together, with her singing arias from operas by Puccini and Verdi while he accompanied her on the piano.
After graduating from Harvard, where she won the Jonathan Levy Prize for acting, Forbes worked as an actress for several years, performing off-Broadway in New York. She then became a musician, forming a band and recording a solo album. She sang the title song ("Ordinary Girl") for the 1996-1999 television series Clueless, and recorded "Que Sera Sera" for Jane Campion's 2003 film In the Cut.
Lauderdale, who was living in Portland, Oregon, then asked her to help out with Pink Martini, a band he had assembled to play at political fundraisers in Portland. After three years, she moved to Portland in 1998 to work full-time with the band.
Alongside her work with Pink Martini, Forbes is recording (as of April 2005) a new solo album.
