Storm Large, who shot to national prominence as a finalist on CBS Television’s Rock Star: Supernova in 2006, will substitute as featured vocalist for the Pink Martini concert next month, the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts announced today (June 21).

The center cited a Sacks & Co. news release attributing Forbes’ absence to health reasons, saying she “must take an extended leave of absence of at least one year to undergo surgery on her vocal cords.”

Large made her debut with Pink Martini in February, singing in the band’s four sold-out concerts with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC.

Pink Martini, described by the Mondavi Center as “genre-hopping and über-hip,” draws inspiration from jazz, classical, old-fashioned pop and romantic Hollywood musicals of the 1940s and ’50s.

Add a global perspective and you have what bandleader and pianist Thomas Lauderdale describes as the perfect house band for the United Nations in 1962.

Pink Martini’s latest recording is Joy to the World (2010), a nondenominational holiday album. The year before, the band put out its fifth album, Splendor in the Grass, described as a virtual carnival of musical influences, with one grand purpose: to rebuild a culture that sings and dances.

The band is scheduled to perform in the Mondavi Center's Jackson Hall at 8 p.m. Tuesday, July 5.

More at the Mondavi

• Return to Forever IV — The much honored jazz-rock fusion ensemble is making one of its storied returns to action, almost 40 years after appearing on the scene. Driven once again by the powerful engine of Chick Corea’s keyboards, Stanley Clarke’s bass and Lenny White’s drums, RTF IV takes to the road in the company of French violinist Jean-Luc Ponty, veteran of the Mahavishnu Orchestra, and Australian guitarist Frank Gambale, described by the Mondavi Center as "fiery-fingered." Zappa Plays Zappa — founded by Dweezil Zappa, son of the late Frank Zappa — shares the bill. 8 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 21, Jackson Hall.

Tickets are available online, or by visiting or calling the Mondavi Center box office, (530) 754-2787 or (866) 754-2787. Box office hours: noon-6 p.m. Monday-Saturday, and one hour before ticketed events.

SummerMusic on the Quad

The Mondavi Center once again presents a free summer concert series, open to the public, with all ages welcome. This year's series comprises two events — a Cajun concert by Steve Riley & The Mamou Playboys, and an Indian dance party, Non Stop Bhangra — with each program offering a preview of special themes in the center's 2011-12 season.

The Mamou Playboys "will give us a taste of Louisiana, tying in to our Spirit of New Orleans week in November," said Don Roth, the Mondavi Center's executive director, while Non Stop Bhangra will evoke the center's seasonlong Focus on India.

• Saturday, July 16 — Steve Riley & The Mamou Playboys, performing Cajun music from the backwaters of southwest Louisiana. The band's history spans more than 20 years and includes three Grammy nominations: Trace of Time, (1993), Bon Reve (2003) and Live at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival (2008). Featuring Riley on accordian, Sam Broussard on guitar and Kevin Wimmer on fiddle.

• Saturday, Aug. 13 — Non Stop Bhangra, or NSB, celebrating Punjabi folk music and dance, is legendary in San Francisco, where NSB parties are held the third Saturday of every month. On Aug. 13, the second Saturday of the month, DJ Jimmy Love and the Dholrhythms Dance Company bring Non Stop Bhangra to the Quad. "Imagine a scene from a Bollywood movie, smack in the middle of a thumping nightclub — swirling colors, the rhythm of pounding feet and the relentless energy of brilliant beats," states the NSB website. The Mondavi Center announced that the NSB party on the Quad will start with a dance lesson for the audience. Dance performances will follow, with Love spinning a mix of bhangra, hip-hop, reggae and electronica.