Storm Large: Award winning musician, actor, playwright, and author. Storm has been one of the hardest working, genre fluid poly hyphenate performers in showbiz for more than 30 years. She shot to national prominence in 2006 as a finalist on the CBS show Rock Star: Supernova. Though it built her a huge fan base that still follows her around the world to this day, Storm prefers straight up, raw dog performing, without screens between herself and the audience.
Storm began singing around the age of 5, much to the annoyance of her conservative, waspy family in small town New England. Luckily for us, however, she never learned to shut up or shrink, as she was so constantly commanded to.
She officially got her start performing in rock and punk bands in San Francisco throughout the ’90s, where she performed with George Clinton, 311, Nina Hagen, and Fishbone …to name a few. Then, after the shock of 9/11/01, Storm quit singing altogether and moved to Portland, OR to start a new life. The music industry felt vapid and sexist, so she decided to go to culinary school to become a chef. With plans to eventually start a meals on wheels program, or maybe teaching people how to create healthy meals using only food stamps.
While applying for school, she bartended at Dante’s, whose owner, Frank, (a friend and a fan) kept bugging her to sing at his club. He finally got her on stage when a long-standing weekly act canceled last minute, and he needed someone to step in. Thus, The Balls were born. What started as a joke act, quickly became a cult phenomenon, and reignited Storm’s love of performing. Plus, her voice and presence at nonprofit and political fundraisers proved that music was indeed a powerful force for good in the world. She’s still a kickass cook, but Storm’s service to her fellow human, is very much her big, beautiful voice.
And that call to service is exactly how Storm ended up singing with Pink Martini. Storm and Thomas Lauderdale worked together for years on multiple fundraisers and political campaigns together, so when China Forbes needed vocal cord surgery and had to hang up the mic for 6 months, Thomas insisted Storm sing for Pink Martini, while China recuperated. Storm learned 10 songs in 5 languages in 4 days, before four sold out shows at The Kennedy Center with the National Symphony Orchestra. That was in 2011, and 15 years, four albums and thousands of shows later, Storm is still happily singing, part time, with the little orchestra of good cheer, and has never looked back.
While touring with her band, Le Bonheur, and Pink Martini, Storm has also written a book and several musicals, one; Crazy Enough, a musical memoir about growing up with a mentally ill mother, was a runaway hit, winning awards and breaking records in Portland and beyond, it was even brought back in 2019 for its 10 year anniversary. Her autobiography of the same name was released by Simon and Schuster in 2012, was Oprah’s book of the week and won the Oregon Book Award for creative nonfiction.
In 2021, when the world was slowly coming back from Covid, Storm was asked to compete on America’s Got Talent, (along with her dear friend and Pink Martini bandmate, Jimmie Herrod).
Though she wowed the judges and audiences alike, Storm still prefers the real real, as opposed to reality television.
On her own, Storm has performed several command performances at Carnegie Hall as well as singing with symphonies throughout the United States and around the World with her own band, as well as solo performing Kurt Weill’s “Seven Deadly Sins”, for which The New York Times called her “Sensational” and dubbing her a brand new star for the classical world.
In her long, wild and twisted career, Storm has sung with k.d. lang, LeAnne Rimes, Angélique Kidjo, was in a show celebrating Randy Newman with Michael McKean and Katey Sagal. She is a friend and favorite of American Songbook champion, Michael Feinstein, performing with Liza Minnelli, Joel Grey and Michael himself. With Pink Martini, Storm has been thrilled to meet and perform with Googoosh, Paul Reubens (Pee-wee Herman), Charro, Rita Moreno, Rufus Wainwright, Ari Shapiro, Edna Vazquez, Jimmie Herrod, Doc Severinsen, and had the incredible honor to perform for the legendary Carol Channing’s 90th birthday.
Storm has bruises from pinching herself almost daily. A dirty punkrock screamer who survived herself and gets to be on stage with so many legends, unbelievable, unprecedented and nothing short of miraculous. Her gratitude for her unbelievable good fortune has much to do with her gobsmacking energy and work ethic.
The woman gets around. Thomas Lauderdale affectionately calls her, “A very busy lady”, Storm is currently working on another book, another musical, scheduled to run at Portland Center Stage for June, 2026 entitled; “Storm Large Makes It Home”, meanwhile, she’s staying in tip top shape to keep up with Pink Martini’s rigorous tour schedule, her own band’s touring, and her myriad writing deadlines.
Storm often signs off her own social media posts and updates with, “I will see you out there, love.” And she’s not wrong, she is definitely out there, and she loves it.
July 2026
Please note: Biographies are based on information provided to the CSO by the artists or their representatives. More current information may be available on websites of the artists or their management.
