Bio

Tora was born and raised in New York City. Her mother and father were producing Broadway shows when she was just a toddler. It is why her mother jokes, “Tora could sing before she could talk; and she danced before she could walk.” As the years passed she spent her evenings at all the Broadway rehearsals, often learning entire shows and all its parts. When she wasnt at rehearsal, she was taking piano, singing and dance lessons and was also an accomplished high-level gymnast and captain to her team. She was accepted to and attended the summer program at the renowned Interlochen Academy for the Arts for three summers, each time a different major.

Life took an unexpected and cruel turn when Tora was in an accident at thirteen years old. A plane carrying Tora, her father, stepmother and four others crashed into the back of a sheet metal factory building  Tora was the only survivor. Miraculously she walked herself out of the plane, and when Rescue arrived they found her standing in the snow nearly unscratched.

“So many people expected me to crumble,” Tora admits. “I sat down at the piano the first week out of the hospital and I wrote a song for my father. I never once, in that plane, thought ‘How can I get through this?’. I simply pushed through that horrific day on raw instinct. But when the dust had settled, then I felt scared because the aches I felt were no longer from my body, but from the bottom of my soul. It was at that moment that I realized my real survival was dependent on music. With music, nothing ever dies. You just keep playing it and it lives again – that’s the magic of it. And so I needed to write music. It brought me joy and thats all I knew and all I wanted to know,” says Tora.

Tora pushed on to start an academic year at Choate Rosemary Hall boarding school as an Arts Concentration major so as not to be around painful memories in New York City. “I didnt fit in much at school at first because people had heard all kinds of rumors about the accident but it didnt matter – I just practiced piano and wrote music every day and that kept me going.” By the end of her time there she was the lead in the school musical, had started her own dance group and managed to graduate with Cum Laude Society Honors.

While then attending Columbia University and being back in her native New York City, her pull towards the music profession was unavoidable.  Columbia granted her leave to pursue her dreams. “I wasnt happy unless I was writing music, performing it or thinking about it.,” she confesses. “You only live once  I know the value of how little time we have here on earth and how it always gets shorter. Sometimes you have to just take a leap and go for your wildest dreams!” It was another two years of hard work and struggles to establish herself as an “artist” before Tora signed with Hawker Management and began work on her debut Album. She draws influence from Freddie Mercury, The Beatles, and Elton John and blends them with similar flares as Joan Jett, Heart and Blondie. Her stage presence reflects all her theatrical and dance background and her voice is a powerhouse to be reckoned with.

“I just want to entertain and give you a great show! But I also have real things to say and music is how Im going to say it.”