【R19：STORY】Cabaret Singer Laura Pink
Laura Pink is a cabaret singer who arranges and performs in her own unique style a wide range of musical genres including Broadway tunes, Jazz, R&B, and Japanese folk tunes. Laura, who loved music from an early age, has always been in search for her own authentic style. Let us follow the path that led her to her momentous encounter with the cabaret style.
Childhood – good instructors helped steer her toward music
Born in Shiogama City of Miyagi Prefecture, young Laura loved princesses, playing with dresses, and anything cute.
She always used to say: “Pink is my color!” Even when she was first starting out as a performing artist, Laura used this name spontaneously.
She was fairly easy-going, but when she had something to say, she made it very clear. As Laura herself reflects: “I was not good at physical exercise when I was in elementary school. I liked P.E., though, and when I received a ‘need more work’ mark in the ‘Enjoys P.E. class’ category on my report card, I immediately protested to my teacher.” Needless to say, when something bothered her, she always tried to talk it through rather than ignore the matter. She once came forward to audition for the king’s part in her school play and was turned down by her teacher “because she was not a boy.” This did not sit right with her so she protested and complained to her mother as well. As a result, they changed the rules to allow girls to audition for the part. Laura was ecstatic.
Laura grew up being surrounded by music from the time she was born.
Her father played the drums as a hobby and her mother had her own music studio where she taught piano and the electone (electronic organ) with ‘Never create a music-hater’ as her motto.” Laura herself commuted to another music studio run by her mother’s acquaintance.
In her words, “At the time, I was simply having fun with music. I didn’t really enjoy practicing the piano, but I was blindly convinced that ‘I’m good’.”
In 5th grade, she began studying piano with the pianist Hiroko Ishigaki.
As she comments, “I remember being asked by Ms. Ishigaki, ‘Laura, do you want to go to music school for college?’ and answering ‘I will go to music school.’ She was surprised at my unquestioning determination, but nevertheless continued to work with me patiently and diligently. At the time, it wasn’t about what I ‘wanted to do’…In my mind, it was only natural that I ‘WAS going to music school.’
However, soon after entering Miyagi Gakuin Junior High School, Laura had a rude awakening. Laura explains, “Miyagi Gakuin was a Christian school, so we sang hymns every day and were always surrounded by music throughout the school day. I realized for the first time how many good musicians there are in this world and how sheltered I had been in my thinking.”
By no means, however, did that diminish her passion for music. In order to further realize her dream of becoming a musical theater actress, in her second year of junior high school, she began taking ballet lessons. She also considered moving on to a musical theater academy or junior college following graduation from high school.
However, the composer Mr. Mitsuharu Okazaki gave her the following valuable words of advice: “Classical music is where you will acquire the basics, and therefore you should first pursue classical music in order to build a solid foundation, regardless of what you ultimately want to do in your career.” Following Mr. Okazaki’s advice, she decided to move on to music school as a voice major. In the interview, Laura expressed sincere gratitude toward people like Mr. Okazaki and others who have played such an important role in getting her to where she is today: “Up to this point in my career, I’ve had the privilege of being carried on the shoulders of these giants in the music business, and for that I am deeply grateful.”
Her desire to learn about Japan in order to find her own authentic style
After enrolling in the voice department of Kunitachi College of Music, Laura continued to refine her artistry not only in her school studies, but also through extracurricular activities.
As she reflects, “Every Saturday, I participated in a studio opera project where I was coached by tremendous teachers including Ms. Mineko Sato and Ms. Kayo Yamamoto. The project also involved participating in stage production, which included everything from working behind the scenes, turning pages for the accompanist, to assisting the actors on stage.
During her freshman year, she played the role of Kelbino in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. She said that though her part lasted only a few minutes, she put everything she had into that one duet. This particular experience was a memorable one for her because it led to further performance opportunities.
In her sophomore year, Laura began working part-time at the National Children’s Castle in Tokyo. After seeing the job advertised at her university, she took the interview, and upon joining the crew, she was given the role of lead vocal and MC for family concerts. “I thought I was capable, but in reality, it didn’t go well at all. Kids are so honest – if they think you’re boring, they stop listening,” reflects Laura. But being surrounded by many people to learn from, and with the kind support of all the backup musicians, she gradually learned how to connect with the children. As she herself reflects, “By the end of my time working there, I felt as though I could take on anything and enjoy the music with whoever came to the concerts. What a great learning experience that was!”
As she took on more and more, her desire to pursue musical theater only grew stronger. Then, in her junior year, she traveled to New York where she saw a Broadway production, and was completely captivated. As Laura explains, “It was totally different from Japanese musicals performed by Japanese actors. I thought to myself then, ‘Musical theater is truly American.’ I was impressed with the natural ease with which the American actors sang and danced.” Laura watched the actors in awe, and asked herself this question: “What must I do to be able to express myself naturally like these Broadway actors?”
Having not only been exposed to music as long as she could remember but also having had the specialized training in music school, she felt confident that her skills as a singer and performer were developing well, although it seemed to her as though something was missing in her expression. As she remarks, “In the American musicals, I found the actors’ expression to be truly authentic. If I were to act in a musical as a Japanese actor, I, too, should do so with Japanese culture as the central framework. This, then, led me to my next question: ‘What exactly is Japanese culture?’” It was then that she realized how little she knew about Japan.
Laura was still in search of the answer to this question when she started her senior year. She studied the opera Yuzuru by Ikuma Dan at the workshop mentioned above. Yuzuru is an opera based on The Grateful Crane. While her peers were singing Italian and German operas, Laura had the opportunity to study a Japanese work.
She recalls that after the Meiji Restoration, Japan rapidly became westernized. “That’s history, and we can’t change that. I was born and raised in a modern Japan, but also enjoy traditional Japanese musicals. I think we live in a time where we are free to express ourselves however we please. It’s not about your age, gender, or even nationality. That being said, however, Europe is still the true home of classical music, while America is the home of musical theater. And in order to find out how to appropriately express myself, I felt that I must familiarize myself more with Japanese culture,” says Laura.
And Kabuki is where this took her.
Laura explains that Kabuki - a rich blend of music, dance, and theater, is an essential element of ancient Japan. Therefore, she thought that working closely with people who mastered the Kabuki way would be extremely beneficial in her learning process. Laura reflects: “In my job interviews, I spoke directly: ‘I want to learn about Japanese culture.’ I was fortunate to land a job in the Kabuki industry, for which I felt humbly grateful.”
After joining the Kabuki world, Laura sometimes received comments such as: “I see you’ve given up on singing,” or “It’s too bad you’re quitting.” That could not have been farther from the truth. In her mind, this was an important step she needed to take in order to develop her style of expression.
Experiences in the Kabuki world and her move to the US
While working in the Kabuki industry, in addition to being an up-close observer of the Kabuki stage rehearsals and performances, Laura had the opportunity to take lessons in Classical Japanese Dance as well as shamisen, a traditional Japanese string instrument. The short nine years Laura spent working in the Kabuki world were only a fraction of the 400 plus year-long history of Kabuki. But “those nine years were extremely valuable to me,” reflects Laura. As she explains, “There is a wide variety of responsibilities that contribute to the making of a Kabuki production – from the actors to everyone working behind the scenes. It is the audience’s support from the first floor balcony seats all the way to the last row on the third floor that makes a Kabuki performance successful.”
Looking back, Laura says that her biggest takeaway from those nine years was meeting people who genuinely loved Kabuki and also experiencing their world firsthand. In her words, “I have nothing but gratitude toward Mr. Nizaemon Kataoka XV and everyone else I had the pleasure of working with. I use, on a daily basis, the knowledge I gained there.”
Meanwhile, she continued pursuing her musical activities. In addition to singing in the chorus for the NHK Symphony Orchestra’s performance of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, she also took part when “Hagi,” a mixed choir based in Sendai City, performed at New York’s Carnegie Hall in a charity concert following the Great East Japan Earthquake. Furthermore, her range of musical activities continued to expand; she performed in the “Shiogama Dream Musical” in which Laura’s mother was involved as the producer, and held concerts in Tokyo with friends from music school.
After several performance opportunities she received through her university and also her hometown, Laura started receiving advice from people suggesting that she “focus on her own expression.” And with the support and encouragement of her husband, she made up her mind.
Laura quit her Kabuki job in 2017 and traveled to the United States. She had initially planned to stay for about one week, but yet another turning point awaited her. After hitting it off with Mercedes Denis, an American woman she met through SNS, Mercedes graciously invited her to come visit with her, rent free. “Mercedes was an African-American woman who lived in Philadelphia,” reflects Laura. “I learned so many things I could never have learned as a tourist, by immersing myself in her community – including the fact that we are all human and therefore have the ability to connect and understand each other, regardless of race.”
She devoted herself to learning English, as well, by participating in English conversation classes held at the local libraries and receiving instruction from Jackie Murchie, a classmate from junior high school.
As Laura points out: “Song is all about words, so the performance is meaningless if the words are not successfully communicated to the audience. Therefore, I have put extra effort into getting help with pronunciation, and am still working on this.”
While in Philadelphia, she also studied belting with Tahira Zumer
In 2019, she used a working holiday visa to travel to Canada and study musical theater with Tracy Michailidis. Tracy not only teaches but is also active as an actor herself in musical theater, so she coached Laura thoroughly on details. They drilled extra hard on “connecting with the lyrics”.
Laura acted in a few musical productions and Netflix shows, but felt somewhat frustrated. In Laura’s words: “To land a part, I realized I was expected to portray a stereotype. The producers wanted an ‘Asian’ look, and therefore I had to adjust my appearance, e.g., I had to dye my hair back to black. I felt that this narrowed my range of expression and I decided that this is not for me.”
The momentous encounter with the cabaret style
Feeling conflicted, one day she went to hang out at a hamburger joint in New York with a friend. The restaurant was known for the young musical theater actors-to-be, who worked and sang nonstop from morning to evening in the restaurant. There was a stage-like platform set up inside, where the waiters and waitresses would work and sing at the same time. By coincidence, there was a special event being held on the day Laura and her friend went to the restaurant. The guest singer performing that night was Marilyn Maye. Marilyn is a legendary cabaret singer who appeared 76 times on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson - the record for a singer. She was also named “The greatest white female singer in the world” by Ella Fitzgerald.
“When I saw her performance, my heart skipped a beat. Marilyn was 90 years old at the time, but her voice and showmanship was age-defying,” reflects Laura. After returning home, Laura went straight to her computer to look up information on Marilyn. Upon learning that Marilyn would be teaching a master class in the near future, she signed up to participate. The class was open to the public, and around ten students took turns going up on stage and performing their songs.
Having never participated in this kind of a masterclass before, Laura felt uncomfortable using the mike that was provided for her on stage.
Because she had been focused on classical voice and musical theater in all of her studies up until then, she barely had any practice singing through a microphone. “But the mike is crucial for Marilyn’s cabaret style,” points out Laura. When Laura voiced her discomfort, Marilyn told her to “think of the mike as your best friend when you sing.” “That really helped me loosen up and just go for it,” she reflects. Laura performed I Got Lost In His Arms, the piece she had been working on with Tracy in Canada. She chose to sing the song she had been working the hardest on and felt comfortable performing. Describing her experience at this masterclass, “For some reason, it felt so easy singing in front of Marilyn, and I felt a warmth to my own voice that had never been there before. It was almost as though Marilyn had removed every barrier that was preventing me from being my natural self.”
To her surprise, some of the other participants were in tears when Laura finished singing, and Marilyn invited Laura to come for a private lesson with her. It was at this point Laura says she was starting to feel like she was finally getting somewhere; “I thought to myself: ‘THIS is the kind of expression I’ve been wanting to do.’” As she started taking lessons and continued her studies with Marilyn, that feeling gradually led to a new level of confidence.
What ultimately decided it for her was Marilyn Maye’s concert at Dizzy’s Club in New York in February of 2020. Commenting on the performance, “It was a 70-minute long show with no breaks. She stopped now and then to talk, but from start to finish, Marilyn had the audience in the palm of her hands. She sang over 20 pieces, changing the style and pace of the music but in a seamless way nonetheless.”
Another aspect of the cabaret style that intrigued Laura was the liberty the singer has to perform from any number of musicals at one performance. As Laura explains, “In musicals, the actors completely become that particular role, but as a cabaret singer, I am free to sing as myself. Until then, there were times when I wanted to sing a particular song but couldn’t because I didn’t fit that role. With cabaret, however, that is not an issue.”
She decided right then and there to continue her career as a cabaret singer.
After returning temporarily to Japan after the Covid-19 pandemic hit, it became impossible to visit the US again for a while, but that didn’t stop her. Utilizing a video call app, Laura shared her decision with Marilyn, after which she began taking lessons from Marilyn online.
Laura began her career as a cabaret singer on June 17, 2021, performing her debut concert at LOFT HEAVEN, a music club in Shibuya. Regarding her vision for the future, Laura wants to establish herself in the show business while making the most of the valuable friendships she’s fortunate enough to make along the way.
There is a quote that Laura has always remembered from when she was working in Kabuki. Laura reflects: “When I once asked a Kabuki actor, ‘What do I need to do to find a way of expression that is true to who I am?’, he answered: “Just keep going. We cannot always expect to be able to do only what we want to do. But if we keep at it, a path might open up someday. If we stop, that’s it.’ Needless to say, these words of advice were very convincing, coming from a performer who had truly mastered that way. The valuable advice I received that day is why I have continued thus far, and indeed, paths are opening up for me.”
Considering her role model, Marilyn Maye - who is over 90 and still actively performing as a cabaret singer, one can only imagine how far Laura Pink’s career will take her.
I look forward to what Laura Pink brings to the stage ten years, twenty years, no...let’s make that fifty years down the road!
text：Momiji photo：Yui Matsukawa translation：Jackie Murchie
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