China Forbes, lead singer of the Portland-based world music band Pink Martini—scheduled to perform July 9 at Hill Auditorium, as part of the Ann Arbor Summer Festival—has had to take an extended leave of absence of at least one year to undergo surgery on her vocal cords.

Performing in her stead will be vocalist Storm Large, who has been singing around the globe for more than 15 years. Portland club-goers may remember her as the lead singer of Storm and the Balls, but she shot to national prominence in 2006 as a finalist on the CBS show "Rock Star: Supernova."

The following year she took a career departure and starred in Portland Center Stage’s production of "Cabaret" with Wade McCollum. Her autobiographical musical memoir, "Crazy Enough," played to packed houses in 2009 during its unprecedented 17 week sold out run in Portland. Large recently performed the show to critical acclaim at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Joe’s Pub in New York.

In November and December of 2010 she starred at the Mark Taper Forum with Katey Sagal and Michael McKean in Jerry Zak’s production of “Harps and Angels”, a new musical featuring the work of Randy Newman. Large made her debut with Pink Martini in April 2011 singing four sold-out concerts with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

Watch for a full preview of the concert next week on AnnArbor.com.