Boston-based composer-percussionist Reynaliz Herrera with her ensemble Ideas, Not Theories, release their debut recording on June 30, 2023. Praised for her “toe-tapping vibe” by the Boston Globe, Reynaliz’s four-movement work BIKEncerto continues her exploration of the bicycle-as-instrument now with the companionship of a chamber orchestra.

Composer and bicycle-percussion soloist: Reynaliz Herrera
Ideas, Not Theories (ensemble)

Full Album Credits Here

Press & Accolades

Reynaliz Herrera is Somerville Arts Council’s July Artist of the Month

BIKEncerto reached #20 on Amazon’s Hot New Releases (Classical)

Featured on AllClassical Portland’s Club Mod with Andrea Murray, MIT Radio’s New Edge, and Virmedius Spotify Playlist.

"Think “STOMP” with Bicycles. That’s the foot-tapping vibe you get from Boston bike-percussionist Reynaliz Herrera’s performances”

— Lauren Daley from The Boston Globe

"A beautiful cacophony of expected sounds. Herrera puts on a wonderfully inventive concert that encourages children to utilize their imaginations and creativity to see music in the mundane. Herrera creates her gloriously inventive soundscapes."

— Emilyn Kowaleski from Theatre is Easy (NYC)

About the Album

BOSTON, MA (June 6th, 2023) – Boston-based and Mexican-born composer-percussionist Reynaliz Herrera, with her ensemble Ideas, Not Theories, release their debut album on June 30, 2023. Praised for her “toe-tapping vibe” by the Boston Globe, Reynaliz’s four-movement work BIKEncerto continues her exploration of the bicycle-as-instrument, now with the accompaniment of a chamber orchestra.

Reynaliz Herrera has created formal and theatrical compositions on the instrument of her choice – the bicycle – since completing her studies in 2012 at Boston Conservatory (Now Boston Conservatory at Berklee). Once an aspiring orchestral percussionist and classical soloist, Reynaliz stumbled upon the bike as an instrument by necessity – busking is less daunting when your mode of transportation becomes your instrument.

Abandoning Bach for the bike, she’s taken her experimental music-theater company, Ideas, Not Theories, to festivals across the US, Mexico, Canada, and even Barbados. With praise from sources as varied as the Percussive Arts Society and the Boston Cyclists Union, this attention-grabbing music has received acclaim at the Flea Theater NY, Boston and Brooklyn Children’s Museums, National Arts Center of Canada, International Festival of Arts & Ideas (New Haven, CT), and Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, Currents New Media (NM), Percussive Arts Society International Convention 2022, and Bridgetown International Arts Festival 2023, among countless others.

Over a decade removed from the conservatory, BIKEncerto: a concerto for solo bicycle and orchestra, represents a reconciliation of Reynaliz’s found voice in the bicycle with her classical background. In BIKEncerto, she uses each movement to highlight a specific characteristic of her instrument, whether its designing a “tire keyboard” in Tires Movement by adjusting each tire’s PSI, designing a “spokes keyboard” conjuring melodic fragments from the tuned rods in Spokes Movement, or playfully exploring diverse parts of the bike in Metallic Movement. With a catalog of countless bike sounds, Reynaliz brings an innovative DIY, yet thorough, approach to percussion music, tracing her found objects roots from performing with her mother’s contemporary dance company as a teenager to now create music that is at once groove-based, humorous and playful, and possibly wry socio-economic critique.

About Ideas, Not Theories

Ideas, Not Theories is a theatrical percussion company for unconventional percussion instruments. Founded  and Directed by composer-performer Reynaliz Herrera (b. 1984 Monterrey, Mexico), the group focuses on performing Reynaliz Herrera’s original music for bicycles and other unconventional instruments, connecting to diverse audiences at festivals, concert halls and theaters, outdoor venues, and museums. Ideas, Not Theories had its premiere at the Festival de Musica Nueva 2012 in Monterrey, Mexico, and has performed regularly throughout the U.S, Mexico and Canada, and recently Barbados.

MORE at: https://www.ideasnottheories.com/about

About Reynaliz Herrera

Boston-based and originally from Mexico, award-winning Reynaliz Herrera is a performing musician, percussionist, composer, producer and educator.

Reynaliz has performed internationally in Mexico, US, Canada, Caribbean Islands, and throughout Europe. She has performed with the National Arts Center Orchestra of Canada (soloist), Double Edge Theater, Ottawa Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de la Francophonie Canadienne, Danza Contemporanea en Concierto, Iva Bittova, and in venues like SXSW, Revolutions International Theater Festival (NM), MIT’s Kresge Auditorium, Teatro Amadeo Roldan (Cuba), and countless others. Her compositions have been performed internationally by her own “Ideas, Not Theories” company, several universities, Public Poetry Houston, FORT percussion ensemble, JU Percussion Group, and Danza Contemporanea en Concierto.

In 2012 Reynaliz Herrera founded Ideas, Not Theories and acts as director, composer, scriptwriter, lead performer and producer of this theatrical percussion company for unconventional instruments.

MORE at: https://www.ideasnottheories.com/about

FOLLOW IDEAS, NOT THEORIES ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Facebook: facebook.com/Ideasnottheoriesbyreynaliz

Instagram: @ideasnottheories

Twitter: @ideasnotheories

Tracks:
I. Everything [6:54]
II. Spokes [7:25]
III. Metallic [5:54]
IV. Tires, Part 1 [2:12]
V. Tires, Part 2 [6:38]

Music Composed by Reynaliz Herrera
Performed by Reynaliz Herrera & Ideas, Not Theories
Produced by Reynaliz Herrera
Recording on August 2022 at Futura Productions Inc, Roslindale, MA
Recording Engineer and Mixing Engineer: Daniel Fox/Wondersmith Audio
Mastering Engineer: Christopher Moretti at Immersive Music Project LLC

Ideas, Not Theories Orchestra
Founder/Owner/Artistic Director: Reynaliz Herrera
Amelia Hollander Ames, guest conductor
Brian Stuligross, concertmaster
Jill Good, Nathaniel Kim, violin I
Thomas E. Nikiper, Marnen Laibow-Koser, Hannah Rebeca Lopez-Vega Hughes, violin II
Yuek Sze Chau, Henry MacDonnell, viola
Natalia McDermott, Jose Quezada Marquez, cello
Darren Sacks, double bass
Daniel Meza, flute
Andrew Van Der Paardt, oboe
Celine Natalie Ferro, clarinet
Laura Angelita Reyes, bassoon
Emma Chisholm, French horn

© 2021 Reynaliz Herrera | ℗ 2023 Reynaliz Herrera

For media inquiries and interview requests, please contact:
David Stevens, (857) 245-5213, Abstraction.MusicGroup@gmail.com