New single SECRET TIES feat. SELINA ALBRIGHT coming Oct 30 2026!
LORI NICELY is a Washington DC based composer, pianist, keyboard artist, arranger, songwriter, and producer whose lyrical, smooth, lush, and upbeat piano, instrumental, and vocals music offers a unique experience and escape. Her latest single, “SECRET TIES”, an original, smooth, contemporary, and heart-touching “piano-vocals showcase” highlights Lori’s signature piano and keyboards, songwriting, lyric writing, and features the dynamic and evocative vocals of Selina Albright.
Lori's music has charted on TOP 10 / TOP 40 / TOP 100 SMOOTH AC / SMOOTH JAZZ, and has made BILLBOARD, MEDIABASE & RadioWave Monitor Top 100. “Breathe” (2026) charted 15 weeks on Smoothjazz.com Top 100 and 13 weeks on RadioWave Monitor & Smooth Jazz Network. Her holiday single, an original arrangement of “O Come All Ye Faithful” (ft. Selina Albright) that also contained over 50% new original music, made BILLBOARD TOP 100. “Come on Down” (2025) (ft. Selina Albright) reached #1 on The Urban Influencer Smooth Jazz chart, was included in the playlist of Kim Scott’s Block Party Radio show, and charted for 13 weeks on Smooth Jazz Network and Smoothjazz.com Top 100. “Reach into My Heart” (2024) ft. Selina Albright & Abe LaMarca hit 6 charts, including 14 weeks on Top 100 Smooth Jazz Network and Smoothjazz.com. “Faithfully LaDonna” (2023) an original music tribute to Donna Summer (ft. Justin Young on sax) charted for 12 weeks including hitting #7 on The Urban Influencer and breaking into the Top 40 on Smooth Jazz Network. Lori’s music has been on TV, used in media awards shows (The Gracie Awards in New York), and in the Peabody Award winning "American Presidents: Life Portraits" series. Her “Best Climate Change” music video got the attention of producers at WaterBear Network, the “Netflix” for environmental videos, who have added her as a composer for potential future projects. With all of Lori’s music, she aims to tell a story.
Lori has been interviewed on various Smooth Jazz/Smooth AC podcasts and/or radio shows (including Cornell “Big Corn” Bethea’s “The Smooth Jazz
Cafe”, Muzilog Magazine Podcast with Sam Archer, “We’re Just Talking” with Kyle Collins, and CoffeeTalk Jazz with Bridgett Lewis). Lori was also a
featured guest artist on “The Industry Roundtable” at The Urban Influencer.
Lori, originally from Virginia, is a natural and developed an ear for quickly recognizing melodies at a very young age (4-5). She combined an innate ability to hone in on melodies with teaching herself piano (around age 9), to be able to play completely by ear. She began composing around age 12. She was formally trained in trumpet at age 12 and performed jazz, symphonic, and pop/rock music through high school (Alleghany) and college (Radford), playing in concert, jazz, pep, and symphonic bands, and even played in a backup horn section for a local rock band. Throughout high school and college, she was hired frequently to play piano because she could play the latest hits, not needing sheet music, and created her own arrangements. She also played piano at churches, pageants, weddings, and other local events. Lori also plays guitar.
As Lori started to record her music professionally, she realized her true passion is composing music, songwriting, and engaging with and showcasing
other top talent. Lori’s music has been compared to pop icon “Hit Man” David Foster, for her strong melodies, lyrical piano, and smooth instrumentation, but modern - for the 21st century. Like Foster, Lori creates and produces fantastic songs & arrangements, performs piano/keyboards, and often brings in other top performers that she hand picks (e.g., featured vocals or sax). Lori’s music crosses several genres, ages, and demographics, appealing to audiences in Smooth AC, pop, R&B, contemporary piano instrumental, and film soundtrack.
LORI ON HER NEWEST SINGLE “SECRET TIES”
“I love ‘Secret Ties’ from start to finish. It is pleasing to the ear, touches the heart. To me it is a little bit reminiscent of, and I was partially inspired by
‘Piano in the Dark’ by Brenda Russell. The primary difference is ‘Secret Ties’ is a piano-driven vocals song, and therefore it has significantly more piano than ‘Piano in the Dark’ and is more chill and less ”pop”. It starts smooth. It ends smooth. In-between it has quite a bit of dynamics especially with Selina’s vocals. She matches the song. At times, she conveys a vulnerability, a sweetness, a wistfulness, which evolves (with the song’s lyrics) to
sultry, soulful, and strong, and back again to wistful, to melancholy. The piano in ‘Secret Ties’, along with the keyboards, is ever present and really gives the song its core identity. People love listening to the piano and they don’t want it buried in the song. They want to hear it and they do.”
Lori's national/international radio release of “Secret Ties” is being promoted via the Smooth AC radio format by Gorov Music Marketing, Smooth Jazz
Network, and Smoothjazz.com. Lori continues to create strong melodies and looks to engage top performers in Smooth Jazz/Smooth AC, R&B, and pop.
