coming up in the next month ...
"Chart Toppers & Show Stoppers" Sunday, October 26th - 5:00 PM
Broadway Meets the Billboard Top 40
This electrifying concert celebrates the undeniable crossover between Broadway stages and Billboard charts. From show tunes that made their way onto radios around the world to pop hits that eventually found their home in the theater, this show is a musical love letter to the songs we can’t stop singing.
James A. Rocco: Host and Vocals
Erin Schwab: Vocals
Elena Glass: Vocals
Colleen Raye: Vocals
Randy Schmelling: Vocals
Emily Villano: Vocals
Lori Dokken: Musical Director & Piano
+A rockin’ band!
From the creative minds behind the hit Songbook Series, TWIN CITIES SINGS is a dynamic concert experience that unites the Twin Cities’ most powerful and diverse voices in unforgettable, one-night-only performances. Each edition is built around a fresh musical theme, blending iconic songs, hidden gems, personal storytelling, and cultural history. What makes it truly special? These are artists who don’t usually share a stage—brought together to celebrate the music that has shaped our lives and showcase the talent that defines our community.It’s more than a concert. It’s a coming together. It’s a celebration. It’s a moment you’ll want to be part of.
Join us—and feel the music that brings the Twin Cities to life.
TWIN CITIES SINGS: The Sound of Our City—Live on Stage.
Crooners Supper Club
6161 Highway 65 NE
Minneapolis, MN 55432
Box Office: (763) 760-0062
"Macabaret - Haunting Songs for the Season" Friday, October 31st - 6:00 PM
Haunting Twists on Cabaret Songs
Doug Anderson hosts a unique vault of songs perfect for the Halloween Season. Featuring a wonderful crypt of live performers adding their own seasoning to fun, funny and naughty songs. Hauntingly charming. Horribly wonderful. Dress appropriately for the event and you will be rewarded with undying gratitude. BOO!
Doug Anderson: Vocals
Lori Dokken: Vocals and Piano
Tristana Ward: Vocals
Jen Maren: Vocals
Nate Babbs: Drums
Ben Kelly: Bass
"Macabaret - Haunting Songs for the Season"
Friday, October 31st @ 6:00 PM
Crooners Supper Club
6161 Highway 65 NE
Minneapolis, MN 55432
Box Office: (763) 760-0062
"PAINTING JONI" ... CELEBRATING THE MUSIC OF A MASTER
GET YOUR TICKETS NOW!
Let’s celebrate a “Happy Belated 82nd Birthday” to Joni Mitchell with a concert event that will highlight some of Mitchell’s most popular works including Big Yellow Taxi, Both Sides Now, A Case of You, The Circle Game, Woodstock and many more.
A self-described “painter derailed by circumstance” and hailed by Rolling Stone as “one of the greatest songwriters ever,” Joni Mitchell’s music paints social and environmental issues using a poetic style while addressing the universal feelings of romantic longing, loss, disillusion and joy. A nine-time Grammy award winner, along with seven other nominations, Mitchell’s music blazed new trails in the industry with her unique open tunings, alternative harmonic structure and lyrical styling that touches the hearts of all who hear it.
Painting Joni … Celebrating the Music of a Master
Lakeshore Players Theatre
Sunday, November 9th, 2025 – 2:00 PM
Judi Vinar – vocals
Rachel Holder – vocals
Benjamin Kelly – bass
Nate Babbs – drums
Lori Dokken – vocals and piano
Sunday, November 9th, @ 2:00 PM
Lakeshore Players Theatre
Hanifl Performing Arts Center
4941 Long Ave
White Bear Lake, Minnesota 55110
BOX OFFICE PHONE: (651) 478-7427
EMAIL: tickets@lakeshoreplayers.org
"A Cabaret of gratitude" - sunday, november 23rd @ 5:00 PM
… celebrating & supporting our friends, family and community!
Please join us for a very exciting acoustic piano and vocal concert event featuring some of the Twin Cities’ favorite female vocalists performing some of their favorite songs. Pianist and producer, Lori Dokken, will be joined by Judi Vinar, Patty Peterson, Ginger Commodore, Rachel Holder, Connie Evingson, Anna Christy and Jennifer Grimm.
This is the perfect Sunday before the holidays begin to be grateful for and celebrate the importance of friends and family and to remember those in need in our community and how we can make a difference in their lives.
This Cabaret Event will be paired with a Go Fund Me opportunity for supporters and guests to donate to Involve MN.
Involve MN is a Minnesota based 501c3 non-profit and is a collaboration of community, business, and government partners providing for the unsheltered and vulnerable people of the Minneapolis and St. Paul area.
Involve MN produces and distributes over 15,000 meals weekly to shelters, drop-in centers and encampments across the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. Meals are delivered 365 days a year. They work tirelessly every day to ensure that no one who is unhoused will go hungry.
The Go Fund Me campaign will be available online the weeks before the event and for two weeks after the cabaret.
SUNDAY, November 23rd @ 5:00 PM
"A Cabaret of Gratitude" ...
celebrating and supporting our friends, family and community
Featuring:
Judi Viunar
Patty Peterson
Ginger Commodore
Rachel Holder
Connie Evingson
Anna Christy
Jennifer Grimm
and ...
Lori Dokken
CROONERS SUPPER CLUB
Main Room Stage
6161 Highway 65 NE
Minneapolis, MN 55432
Box Office: (763) 760-0062
"a cabaret of gratitude" go fund me campaign for involve MN!
What is Involve MN?
Involve MN is a Minnesota based 501c3 non-profit and is a collaboration of community, business, and government partners providing for the unsheltered and vulnerable people of the Minneapolis and St. Paul area.
Involve MN produces and distributes over 15,000 meals weekly to shelters, drop-in centers and encampments across the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. Meals are delivered 365 days a year. They work tirelessly every day to ensure that no one who is unhoused will go hungry.
The Go Fund Me campaign will be available online the weeks before the event and for two weeks after the cabaret.
Give to the INVOLVE MN Go Fund Me Campaign!
Let's make a difference in the lives of our neighbors and community!
We would love to see you at the concert ... but if you are unable to attend, please consider donating to this amazing organization!!!
The women of "women on the moon"
Featuring: Lori Dokken, Patty Peterson, Judi Vinar, Joyann Parker, Ginger Commodore & Rachel Holder
Women on the Moon is a concert event that showcases some of our favorite artists from the 1960s such as: Mama Cass, Tina Turner, Aretha, Cher, Dusty Springfield, Lesley Gore, Grace Slick, Janis Joplin, Dionne Warwick, Mavis Staples, Joan Baez, Cher, Ella, Shirley Bassey, Laura Nyro, Diana Ross, Barbra, Joni Mitchell, Bonnie Raitt, Nancy Sinatra, and the great Nina Simone.
The 1960s was one of the most memorable decades of all time in the history of The United States. It started out with the election of President John F. Kennedy and the dawn of “Camelot” and closed out with the first man landing on the moon. In between these bookends would be the assassinations of JFK, RFK and MLK; civil rights legislation; protests; drugs; The Feminine Mystique; Black Power; hippies; Vietnam; Gloria Steinem; Nixon; the Watts riots; Andy Warhol; Stonewall; NOW; The Beatles; Laugh-In; The Rolling Stones; Twiggy; Woodstock; and so many other momentous events.
While men landed on the moon, women artists took their own giant leap into every area of the musical landscape. The ‘60s were inarguably the most prolific decade for female vocalists and musicians in many diverse styles and categories. From pop and folk to rock and roll and rhythm and blues, women launched themselves into the music scene and claimed their space in the mostly male dominated industry.
Sunday, September 21st @ 7:00 PM
Chanhassen Dinner Theatres
501 West 78th Street
Chanhassen, MN 55317
unity minneapolis - music director - lori dokken
Sunday morning services have moved back to Unity Minneapolis' Sanctuary! Live-streamed and in person
Sunday morning services have moved back to Unity Minneapolis' Sanctuary! Live-streamed and in person
Sunday morning services have moved back to Unity Minneapolis' Sanctuary! Live-streamed and in person
Unity Minneapolis - live-streamed and in-person service at 10:00 AM!
After 15 months of gathering at Robbinsdale Parkway United Church of Christ ... Phase One of the renovation is done and on July 13th we celebrate a homecoming to the new Unity Sanctuary!
Unity Minneapolis
4000 Golden Valley Road
Minneapolis, MN 55422
Join me for a tremendously uplifting Sunday morning experience at Unity Minneapolis where I have been the Music Director for the past fifteen years. Weekly Sunday morning service at 10:00 with the service available in person or by livestream on the church's website or their Facebook page or YouTube channel.
Frequent musical guests include The Unity Choir, Judi Vinar, Rachel Holder, Patty Peterson, Dane Stauffer, Joyann Parker, Erin Schwab, Ginger Commodore, Mary Jane Alm and many, many other great Twin Cities’ artists.
August & September Music Teams
Sunday - August 24th - Musical Guests are Erin Schwab, Dave Berget, Pete Hennig and me!
Sunday, August 27th - Musical Guest is Patty Peterson and me!
Sunday September 7th - “What Would You Do?”
Musical Guests Rachel Holder, Dave BErget, David Stanoch and me!
Sunday, September 14th - “God Help the Outcasts
Musical Guests are Rachel Holder, Dave Berget, David Stanoch and me!
Sunday, September 21st - “Beautiful City”
Musical Guests are Dane Stauffer, Tristana Ward, Dave Berget, David Stanoch and me!
Sunday, September 28th - “I’m Here”
Musical Guests are Rachel Holder, Ben Kelly, David Stanoch and me!
The Annual September Music Series for 2025 at Unity Minneapolis is "When Art Speaks ..."
Sunday morning services have moved back to Unity Minneapolis' Sanctuary! Live-streamed and in person
Sunday morning services have moved back to Unity Minneapolis' Sanctuary! Live-streamed and in person
“When Art Speaks …”
… from Berlin in the 1930s to today.
This year’s September Music Series will highlight the world of American theatre and specifically Broadway musicals from the past seventy years.
Artists and composers have brilliantly used this medium to express feelings, thoughts, emotions, worries, anger and sadness in reaction to their surroundings … political culture … daily life … and the environment. It seems that this need to create and express themselves is spawned from a desire to engage in and change the landscape of the times they were living through.
Please join us in person or online for the September Music Series at Unity Minneapolis - “When Art Speaks.” It promises to be a powerful, engaging, poignant, humorous, thought provoking and incredibly inspiring month.
“When Art Speaks” to us it can motivate and inspire diverse communities to bond together with common cause to form a movement – a broad and inclusive movement.
We CAN come together … We CAN do better.
Special Music featured during Sunday Services in September will be selections from some well-known Broadway musicals from the past seven decades.
On Sunday, October 5th at 5:00 PM – Judi Vinar, Rachel Holder and I (THREE) will close out the series by presenting a retrospect of material from contemporary music that has spoken to the people.
See you in September!
I hope you can come and experience “When Art Speaks …”
Lori
Special Guests for this series include: Rachel Holder, Dane Stauffer, Tristana Ward, David Stanoch, Dave Berget, and Benjamin Kelly.
"when art speaks" ... from Berlin in the 1930s to today.
Read Lori's notes regarding the Music Series
This year’s September Music Series, “When Art Speaks …” will highlight the world of American theatre and specifically Broadway musicals from the past seventy years.
Artists and composers have brilliantly used this medium to express feelings, thoughts, emotions, worries, anger and sadness in reaction to their surroundings … political culture … daily life … and the environment. It seems that this need to create and express themselves is spawned from a desire to engage in and change the landscape of the times they are living through.
History contains many eras of struggle as well as times of great accord that have driven and inspired artists to create some of the most influential works contained in the annals of our times. The categories of expression by these archivists have been threaded through theatre, spoken word, essays, paintings, photography, poetry and music. Quite often, works of art have inspired and motivated a society to enact positive and meaningful change that has caused the arc of our future to continue to bend toward justice.
I recently attended the production of Cabaret at The Guthrie and was gob smacked by the similarity of the topics the play highlighted from Berlin in 1930 that are front and center in the United States today.
I did some reading and research about the development of the musical Cabaret and discovered that in the early 1960s, Broadway producer Harold Prince acquired the source material for the show which was Christopher Isherwood's stories from his 1939 novel Goodbye to Berlin. Prince wished to create a gritty adaptation of Isherwood's stories that drew parallels between the spiritual bankruptcy of Germany in the 1920s and contemporary social problems in the United States at a time "when the struggle for civil rights for black Americans was heating up as a result of nonviolent but bold demonstrations being held in the Deep South."
I found an incredible correlation between Isherwood’s Berlin in 1930 … Hal Prince’s America in the 1960s … and the alarmingly dangerous situation we are in today … in 2025.
People are being arrested without warrant, cause and due process … disappeared without basic rights … pulled off the street because of the color of their skin or the language that they speak … silenced because they are saying things in opposition to the people in power … are afraid for their lives if they do speak out … are being robbed of their basic human rights … and they watch without recourse as the programs and agencies they have relied on for their very survival are either being gutted, closed or people are casually being deemed no longer eligible to receive the assistance.
“When Art Speaks” to us it can motivate and inspire diverse communities to bond together with common cause to form a movement – a broad and inclusive movement - that demands adherence to The Constitution, respect for the rule of law, champions human rights and demands a return to the premise from which this great country began – E Pluribus Unum – out of many … ONE.
We CAN come together … We CAN do better.
Please join us at Unity Minneapolis for the September Music Series – “When Art Speaks.” It promises to be powerful, engaging, poignant, humorous, thought provoking and incredibly inspiring.
Some of the songs we will feature are: “What Would You Do?” and “Maybe This Time” (Cabaret); “You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught” (South Pacific); “Easy to be Hard” and “Age of Aquarius” (Hair); “Save the People,” “Beautiful City” (Godspell); “You’ll Be Back” (Hamilton); “I’m Here” (The Color Purple) and many, many more …
On Sunday, October 5th at 5:00 PM – Judi Vinar, Rachel Holder and I (THREE) will close out the series by presenting a broad retrospect of material from contemporary music that has spoken to all of us.
In closing …
These famous and historical words will probably feel familiar to many people. Their relevancy to our times gives a startling example of the serious truth of our current situation.
Written by Martin Niemöller, a German Lutheran pastor and theologian in 1930s Germany, Niemöller supported Hitler’s rise to power but came to odds with the government when Hitler insisted on the supremacy of the state over religion.
Niemöller then led a group of German clergymen who now opposed Hitler, and he was consequently arrested in 1937 and spent eight years in two different concentration camps until he was released by the Allies in 1945.
I didn’t know his history until doing research for this series. I now read his words through a much different lens … they ring even more true to me now.
First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me
See you in September!
Lori
About Lori
Musician - Pianist - Vocalist
Music Director - Producer - Arranger - Performance Coach
Music Director - Producer - Arranger - Performance Coach
A vast catalogue of music from old Swing tunes to R &B, Pop and Folk to classic old hymns ...
Music Director - Producer - Arranger - Performance Coach
Music Director - Producer - Arranger - Performance Coach
Music Director - Producer - Arranger - Performance Coach
It's not surprising that she was voted "Most Versatile" in high school ...
Passionate Performer
Music Director - Producer - Arranger - Performance Coach
Passionate Performer
This musician will give you everything she's got ...
And that's a lot ... four decades of seasoning as a pianist and vocalist.