About Linn

Brought up on a dairy-farm near Tokoroa, New Zealand, Linn Lorkin got her first piano lessons from her mother and her show-business start in Europe in the 1970s. Her first professional gig was in a low dive in Copenhagen, singing and playing for sailors and prostitutes. She went on to play the famous Ronnie Scott's jazz club in London. This was followed by eight years playing piano-bar in New York 1977-85 before returning to New Zealand and establishing herself as one of the most well-loved performers on the local scene.

Musical Acts in New Zealand

• Happy Talk - songwriter/lead singer/keyboards
  (1989-1992)
• First Ladies of Jazz - singer/pianist/arranger/songwriter (1992-1995)
• French Toast - singer (French chansons cabaret style) (1993 to present)
• The Jews Brothers Band - lead singer of NZ's premier klezmer ensemble which plays in Europe and throughout Australasia (1994 to present)

Theatre Credits

• Physical theatre, Inside Out Theatre (1988-1994)
• Original musicals & revues: Coming Up from Under (1984), The Magi-Comical Kiwi Show (1989), The Girl from Tokoroa (1992), Linn Lorkin's Kiwiana ( 2005), Chanson (2008),
  Do or Di ( 2011) and currently Hey, Piano Bar Lady!

A prolific songwriter with close to 100 original songs to her credit, including some in French, she has also translated into English several songs from the Piaf repertoire. She can be heard singing many of her own songs (and various other people's) on 14 albums, available from her own Rouge Records label and also on Amplifier and iTunes. Her iconic song Family at the Beach was voted Best Kiwi Summer Song Ever in a recent NZ National Radio Listeners Poll.