Lorrie Doriza
“Doriza has one of those voices that comes along every ten years or so”
“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.”
“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.”
About Lorrie Doriza
Lorrie Doriza is a Greek-American songwriter, composer and performer based in New York. Her work spans a spectrum of quirky piano pop, electrolounge, Greek cabaret and musical theatre.
She is most well known for her trip-hop collaborations with Stoupe, the producer of underground hip-hop group Jedi Mind Tricks, and their group Vespertina from their full-length album "The Waiting Wolf," a concept album loosely based around the story of Scheherazade and 1,001 Arabian Nights. They are currently working on their sophomore album, due for release in spring 2024.
In 2021, she released “Den S’afino Na Mou Fygeis (I Could Never Let You Leave Me)” a tribute album and a family heirloom in honor of her late grandfather, Tony Rais, a Greek cabaret singer in the 30s and 40s whose rising career was abruptly cut short when he was diagnosed with throat cancer and had have his vocal cords removed. Lorrie and her brother, Petros Dorizas, spent 7 years researching music libraries and combing through archives to find 10 scores of songs that Tony Rais sang. With the help of arranger Dan Wilson, these were re-imagined, re-orchestrated and recorded, some for the very first time ever, during quarantine, with musicians from all over the world recording remotely from inside their homes, resulting in an intensely personal and imaginative album.
Lorrie is an Advanced Member of the prestigious BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop. There, she was paired with lyricist Allison Light and together they wrote a short-length musical comedy entitled “The Masterpiece” which won the 2021 Jean Banks Award for best 10-minute musical. they have since taken part in other workshops, including prospect theatre lab in 2023, where their 10 min musical “MEAT” was performed at symphony space (NY).
While at the BMI workshop, alongside lyricist Dan Wilson, they musicalized a handful of song moments from the film My Big Fat Greek Wedding into an unofficial musical comedy. Their final presentation earned them a seat in the BMI Advanced Musical Theatre Workshop.
About Tony Rais
Tony Rais, a Greek singer and diseur in the 30s and 40s, was a rising star in the “Old Athens” cabaret scene. He was discovered by famed and beloved songwriter Attik and was a regular performer at "I Mantra tou Attik" (Attik's Pen), and many other cabarets and nightclubs in the area., as well as the tatoi royal palace. he sang alongside nikos gounaris, tony maroudas, fotis polimeris and many others.
Sadly, Tony Rais' career was tragically cut short when just as access to music recording technology became available in Postwar Greece, he was diagnosed with throat cancer and had to have his vocal cords removed. This shattered any hopes that he'd ever sing again, let alone record the songs he made famous. He spoke with an electrolarynx machine for the rest of his life, and his songs haven’t been heard since. though he continued to play guitar here and there, he became a carpenter and spent the rest of his life building intricate bird cages and other knick knacks, occasionally picking up the guitar and playing casually for his friends in local cafes and tavernas.
Tony Rais was my maternal grandfather. The love of his life, lorrie, a piano teacher, is my namesake.
The Re-Imagined Album
This album, entitled “I Could Never Let You Leave Me,” started as a 70th birthday gift to my mom, but quickly blossomed into something more. After years of research of archives, music libraries, and speaking with collectors, my brother and I discovered the sheet music for 10 songs Tony Rais sang back in the 30s and 40s.
My collaborator, Dan Wilson, and I worked on re-arranging these songs that had been left to decay for almost a century and bring them back to life, with fresh instrumentations that respected and highlighted the original ensembles, so we could imagine what these songs may have sounded when they were performed live.
Everything on this album was recorded separately, from inside our musicians' and artists' homes, from all corners of the world, during quarantine.
Tony Rais may have lost his voice, but my hope is that you'll be able to hear it through mine, and that you will share his story and this beautiful music with others.
PRESS and PODCASTS
IHeartRadio’s Ephemeral Podcast, '“I Can Never Let You Leave Me” (Released July 12, 2021)
INTERVIEWER: ALEX WILLIAMS
The Alternative Kind Radio episode, “Lorrie Doriza Interview for release of “Den S’afino Na Mou Fygeis (I Could Never Let You Leave Me).”
INTERVIEWER: CHRIS XYNOS
Multicultural Maestras Vol. 3: Greece
maestra, May 1, 2023
Lorrie Doriza Shares Grandfather Tony Rais' Lost Music from the Old Athens Era
The National Herald, January 19, 2021
The Original Scores
Previous Releases
Vespertina
A pop and trip hop collaboration with legendary underground hip hop producer, Stoupe, with original music by Lorrie Doriza. The album “The Waiting Wolf” was released in 2011. The group performed in NY and Philadelphia, with notable performances at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and had songs featured in indie films “Living with the Dead: a Love Story” and “Girl in the Basement.” they are set to release their sophomore album in 2025.
They currently have 1,300 follows on Facebook, over 200 monthly listeners on Spotify. Currently the top played songs are “Find a Way” (47K Plays), “Devil’s Dance” (18K plays) and “The Girl in the Basement” (14k plays). Stoupe has 4K followers on Facebook, 5.5K on Instagram, 2.5K followers on Spotify, 566K followers on Spotify with Jedi Mind Tricks, 513K Followers on Facebook.
The Good Johnsons
A fresh electro-lounge project with producer Dan Keller, playing songs of the past with sounds from the future! They’ve released two albums of re-imagined lounge covers entitled "Introducing The Good Johnsons" and "Livin' in the Sunlight!" and have performed in various music festivals and venues across Japan and New York.
They currently have 1.5k monthly listeners on Spotify, with current top played songs are “It Is Such a Good Night” (150K plays on Spotify) and “Make Your Own Kind of Music” (20K+ plays on Soundcloud).
Lorrie Doriza
Affectionately known by her peers at the BMI musical theatre workshop as “the melody queen,” Lorrie composes and performs in various genres but always puts catchy melodies first. After her collaborations with Vespertina, The Good Johnsons and others, Lorrie has started composing for musicals, releasing a mini-musical entitled “The Masterpiece” with lyricist Allison Light, which won the Jean Banks Award in 2021. They both worked with Prospect Theatre Lab on another 10 minute musical called “Meat” which was performed at Symphony Space in 2023.
Lorrie also composes and lends her vocals for various reality tv spots, short animated films, and more.
She has a small and loyal following on Facebook (1.1K), Instagram (1.1K), Youtube (270 subscribers) and her top performing song on Spotify is a feature on the song “Find a Way” with Stoupe (47K plays).
CONTACT
Lorrie is a member of ASCAP, The Dramatist Guild, Maestra, and the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Advanced Workshop.
Contact Lorrie directly at: lorriedorizamusic@gmail.com