Included in The Boston Globe’s “The best of Boston music” 2023 list, Boston-based and originally from Mexico, Reynaliz Herrera is a multi-award winning professional performing musician, percussionist, composer, producer and educator based in Boston, but originally from Mexico. She was born in Monterrey, Mexico in 1984. 

Herrera has performed in different countries like Mexico, United States, Canada, Cuba, Barbados, Spain, Germany and Italy, and has performed and collaborated with renowned ensembles such as Double Edge Theater, The National Arts Center Orchestra of Canada (as soloist), The Ottawa Symphony Orchestra, The Orchestre de la Francophonie Canadienne, The Boston Conservatory Orchestra, Mexican Dance Group: Danza Contemporanea en Concierto, Front Porch Arts Collective, Moonbox Productions, The Boston Opera Collaborative , Grooversity, Flamenco Boston, Boston Percussion Group and band Muy Cansado. She has engaged in solo recitals and performances which include repertoire of her own works in countries such as the United States, Mexico, Cuba, Canada, Spain, Barbados, Italy and Germany, and has collaborated with prestigious artists such as Iva Bittova, Bob Becker, Ian Bernard, Evelyn Glennie (sharing the stage), Pinchas Zukerman, Gunter Schuller, Marcus Santos, Maria Finkelmeier and Giselle Ty. She has also been marimba and percussion soloist several times with The National Arts Center Orchestra of Canada (one of them Broadcasted by CBC Radio Canada nation-wide).

Her compositions have been performed internationally by her own Ideas, Not Theories company and several universities, as well as ensembles like JU Percussion Group (Taiwan).

Herrera is the founder, director, composer, scriptwriter and lead performer of Ideas, Not Theories, a theatrical percussion company for unconventional instruments that offers several programs featuring Herrera’s original music and compositions for bicycles and other unconventional instruments. For the last twelve years, the focus of Herrera’s original music has been to explore the musical bike’s different capabilities by composing her own original music for bicycles and performing that original music, she performs these original compositions in the form of programs with her company, Ideas, Not Theories.

Since 2012, she has brought her Ideas, Not Theories company to perform throughout North America and the Caribbean (United States, Canada, Mexico and Barbados) at renowned venues and festivals such as The Percussive Arts Society International Convention 2022,  Interference Series 2024 (Arizona), Bridgetown International Arts Festival  2023 (Barbados), The Space Between 2024 at McGill University, The Institute of Contemporary Art Boston 2021/2024, The Museum of Science Boston 2024, Peabody Essex Museum 2022, Harvard Museums of Science and Culture 2021, Current New Media Festival 2021, International Festival of Arts and Ideas 2019, The New York International Fringe Festival 2015, NYU/KoSA/HLAG Day of Percussion 2016 NY, National Arts Center of Canada, The Flea Theater, ILLUMINUS, Outside The Box Festival, FOG x FLO, ArtBeat, World Maker Faire NY 2017 and Boston Maker Faire, Boston Children’s Museum, Brooklyn Children’s Museum and Please Touch Museum.

In 2021 Herrera and Ideas, Not Theories premiered Herrera’s composition, BIKEncerto: a concerto for solo bicycle and orchestra which was funded by  The Boston Foundation (Live Arts Boston 2021 grant) and The Somerville Arts Council (LCC 2021 grant) and is now the newest program offered by Ideas, Not Theories. In June 2023, she released a critically acclaimed and award-winning album of the same piece, both featuring Herrera as composer, producer and bicycle percussion soloist and her Ideas, Not Theories as the ensemble. Her debut album is titled, BIKEncerto: a concerto for solo bicycle and orchestra (By Reynaliz Herrera).

In 2024, Herrera was awarded a $30,000 grant award from The Boston Foundation's Live Arts Boston program.

For her Live Arts Boston grant, her project consisted of taking her piece/composition BIKEncerto: a concerto for solo bicycle and orchestra to the next level supporting its live performance in 2025/26 both locally and touring in renowned venues, with Herrera as featured composer/producer/bicycle percussion soloist and with her own company, Ideas, Not Theories, as the ensemble/orchestra. 

Other appearances in Herrera’s her career have included Revolutions International Theater Festival (NM), Paramount Theater, South By Southwest (Austin), MIT Kresge Auditorium, The Peabody Essex Museum, The Boston Science Museum, The Wang Theater, The Palau Hall (Spain), theaters and festivals in Mexico, and Italy and Teatro Amadeo Roldan (Cuba).

Herrera began pursuing music at the Escuela Superior de Musica y Danza de Monterrey, with maestro Noel Savon, and holds a Bachelor of Music from The University of Ottawa where she studied with Professor Ian Bernard, former solo timpanist of The National Arts Center Orchestra and Herrera’s mentor (Graduating Summa Cum Laude) and graduated from The Boston Conservatory with a Master of Music in Performance (Percussion) where she studied with renowned percussionists like Nancy Zeltsman, Sam Solomon, John Grimes and Keith Aleo.

Herrera has received numerous grants to support her original work from organizations like The Boston Foundation (Live Arts Boston 2021 and 2024), Somerville Arts Council, Massachusetts Cultural Council and The Foundation for Contemporary Arts.

Herrera has also received international awards such as The Global Music Awards 2023, inclusion on the Boston Globe's list “The best of Boston music 2023,” Somerville Arts Council “Artist of the Month (July 2023),” “My First NAC Award 2014” (Canada), The National Youth Award 2004 (Mexico), The State Youth Award 2009 (Mexico), The Festival PERCUBA 2002-International Percussion Competition in Cuba (first place), The National Arts Center of Canada´s Bursary Competition 2005, National Arts Center of Canada “My First NAC Award 2014” and the MTV Latin America “agent of change award 2009.”

Herrera and Ideas, Not Theories have been featured in news stories, articles, interviews and reviews in The Boston Globe, GBH (Boston's NPR station) The Culture Show, NBC10 BOSTON, The Santa Fe New Mexican, The WholeNote Magazine, Percussive Notes, Fanfare Magazine, CBC Radio Canada, The Ottawa Citizen, The Patriot Ledger, DRUM! Magazine, NY1 Time Warner Cable, TimeOut NYC, Broadway World, Curtain Up and Theater is Easy NYC, among others. Additionally, her music has been played on radio stations like KQAC “All Classical Portland” (Oregon), GBH (Boston Public Radio), WMBR (MIT Radio), SkyLab Radio (Australia) and WOMR (Cape Cod Radio).

She was percussion and music instructor at ZUMIX, and has taught at different programs, like The Hamilton-Garret Music and Arts Academy and The Boston School of Music Arts, and formerly at The Urbano Project, and the El Sistema Somerville, and she has been a panelist for the Somerville Arts Council and a guest panelist for the Tough Broads Film Festival at The Lower East Side Girls Club of New York.