By Julia Penchuk
Victoria “Tori” Bizzoco, an 11-year-old singer/songwriter, dancer and Off-Broadway actress, fell in love with performing right here in Long Island. Since she was two years old, Bizzoco has been entertaining audiences. At age six, she started competitive dancing and acting at a local Long Island theatre.
Bizzoco started taking her acting career more seriously during quarantine. During the peak of COVID-19, not many theaters were doing live performances; however, she had the opportunity to play lead Cady Heron in Mean Girls in her local theatre.
Bizzoco’s first Off-Broadway production was at The Riverside Theater in New York City at age 9. She is currently center stage as band manager Summer Hathaway in School of Rock at The John Cullum Theatre on 54th street.
“So far School of Rock has been my favorite show I have ever done,” Bizzoco said. “The people I worked with became my family and we all got super close”.
Her mother, Lori Bizzoco, explained how intensive the Off-Broadway shows are. These Off-Broadway shows are regular show length of more than two hours and are run by actors and actresses who have been on Broadway themselves.
In addition to performing on stage, Bizzoco loves to spend time recording covers and writing original music. For roughly a year, she has been recording with The Loft Sound Studio in Syosset to produce song covers.
(Photo courtesy The Loft Sound Studio)
The Loft Sound Studio, a professional recording studio and artist development productions company, is in Syosset right off Jericho turnpike. The Loft Sound Studio has founded other local well-known stars like Madison Beer, Jason Derulo, Sky Katz, Conor Maynard. Over the past 10 years, Loft Sound Studio has helped bring thousands of recording artists songs to life.
Bizzoco is appreciative of all the people she gets to work with. “I have a really incredible producer,” she said. “All the people I work with are really nice and amazing.”
Next month, Bizzoco will release her debut single titled, “Back to the Start”, which will be the first of several songs appearing on her upcoming EP. A record label in Georgia found the covers she posted with The Loft Sound Studio on YouTube and helped her co-write her upcoming single.
On June 21, Tori performed live at Don’t Tell Mama in New York for Broadway’s Dueling Duets. This cabaret event will raise money to help the people in Ukraine.
Aside from training for Broadway, Bizzoco will attend Oceanside Middle School in the fall and is excited to get to hang out with her friends and shop like everyone else her age. Despite all the talented projects she is working on at such a young age, Bizzoco is known to be the girl that is always lifting up people around her. “She is the person that will say everyone sings great,” Lori Bizzoco said.
The younger Bizzoco is happy to have these great opportunities that many kids her age don’t get to have. “I would be happy with any role because it’s amazing to perform,” she said. “I don’t have favorites.”
Her advice for other Long Island tweens trying to achieve their dreams is to believe in yourself.
“It’s as simple as believing in yourself,” Bizzoco said.
With her mother believing in her, Bizzoco found it easier to believe in herself and fall in love with all her work.
