Highly regarded music manager Lorraine Barry passed away at her Titirangi, Auckland, home on June 14, 2025. In the period of her untimely death the Lorraine Barry Management roster included Sir Dave Dobbyn, Tom Scott, Home Brew, VGB (Victoria Girling-Butcher) and Aidan Fine.

Bucking the trend of Kiwi music specialists leaving the country to achieve bigger and better things overseas, Lorraine Barry moved to Aotearoa in the early 2000s, with a glowing resume that included a 16-year tenure as international marketing manager at Virgin Records in the UK.

Making a new home in Auckland Barry soon kicked off her local career as a leading artist manager in the NZ music industry, first working with a close friend of her partner, Mutton Birds’ drummer Ross Burge. Her expertise in curating the release of Dave Dobbyn’s 2005 album ‘Available Light’ (with its opening track Welcome Home), brought notable success in re-establishing his enduring career.

“In my experience being an iconic artist can mean that they don’t get the exposure or credit that they are due,” Barry told NZM at the time. “So it was important to encourage the controllers of airplay to listen to the album and radio play has certainly tipped the scales for it.”

Dave Dobbyn led the way in paying tribute to his manager and dear friend, noting her ‘great instinct and canny intelligence’. He was heavily quoted in coverage of her death by the UK-based Daily Mail, which included that ‘across Barry’s illustrious career she collaborated with legendary figures like the Spice Girls, Massive Attack, John Lee Hooker, the Chemical Brothers, Ice T and Soul II Soul’.

A determined advocate for her artists, and mentor for many over the years, Barry went on to embed herself in the local music industry. Lorraine Barry Management has guided numerous artists and acts, also including Mark Vanilau, Avantdale Bowling Club, Team Dynamite and Aaradhna.

A regular panellist on music industry forums, she contributed two stints as a board member of the NZ Music Commission, where she had a particular passion for the export-focused roles and the Industry Internship Programme.

Barry was also a long-time leading participant in the NZ Music Managers Forum (now MMF Aotearoa), and a two-time winner of the MMF NZ Manager of the Year Award.

The APRA AMCOS NZ tribute noted she was ‘an integral figure in the New Zealand music landscape, not just as a leading manager, but a mentor, teacher, connector and friend to many.’