Lorrie Doriza is a Greek-American composer and performer based in New York. She got her start writing, producing and performing songs for indie pop group Vespertina, a collaboration with Stoupe, best known as the producer of the underground hip-hop group Jedi Mind Tricks. They released their full-length album "The Waiting Wolf" in 2010, a concept album loosely based around the story of Scheherazade and 1,001 Arabian Nights.
Lorrie has also worked on the electro-lounge project The Good Johnsons, with producer Dan Keller, releasing two albums of re-imagined lounge covers entitled "Introducing The Good Johnsons" and "Livin' in the Sunlight!" while performing in various music festivals and venues across Japan and New York.
“Lorrie’s vocals [...] are just flawless. She writes fantastically strong melodies, and the tone of her voice, as well as her total control, stunning restraint and accurate pitching just amaze me.”
in 2020 she released her first short-length original musical entitled “The Masterpiece,” a collaboration with lyricist and bookwriter Allison Light, which won the 2021 Jean Banks award for best 10 Minute Musical. Together they wrote another 10 minute musical “MEAT” for their collaboration with Prospect Theatre Lab, which was performed at Symphony Space in 2023.
“Doriza has one of those voices that comes along every ten years or so”
In 2021 she released the Greek Cabaret album “I Could Never Let You Leave Me,” a tribute to her late grandfather, is a full album of Greek cabaret songs from the 30s and 40s that her grandfather, rising star singer and diseur of the old Athens era, Tony Rais, once sang. When Tony Rais’ career was cut abruptly short due to his throat cancer diagnosis and removal of his vocal cords, he faded into obscurity.
More than 70 years later, after years of research, the sheet music for 10 songs that Tony Rais sang were found. These were then re-imagined, re-orchestrated and recorded (most for the very first time), during the quarantine lockdown, with musicians from all over the globe recording from inside their homes, resulting in an intensely personal and imaginative album. The Greek reporter called it “[A] stunning musical feat — and work of love — may be unique in the entire world.” Tony Rais’ story was featured on an episode of IHeartRadio’s podcast “Ephemeral.”
Coming up, Lorrie’s sophomore album with Vespertina is slated to be released in 2025. She’s currently working on an original full-length musical with Allison Light, writing Greek kids’ songs (for fun), and helping young people express themselves and find their voices through theater and songwriting.
When she's not writing music, she's production managing live theater performances and events, music directing community theater shows, consulting, teaching and holding daily in-home concerts for her biggest fans (and critics) - her twin toddlers.
Lorrie is a member of ASCAP, The Dramatist Guild, Maestra, and the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Advanced Workshop.
“Lorrie Doriza [...] has a theatrical style that is playful, angry and dramatic all at once. Listening to her music, it’s easy to imagine being caught up in a sardonic, sarcastic and subversive Disney tale.”