BIKEncerto: a concerto for solo bicycle and orchestra

Featuring Reynaliz Herrera & Ideas, Not Theories

Reynaliz Herrera is a musical artist, percussionist and composer based in Boston. She is also the founder and artistic director, composer and lead performer of the theatrical percussion company for unconventional instruments, Ideas, Not Theories. Herrera’s work focuses extensively on the use of the bicycle as a musical instrument, and her creative process and goal in general, has been to explore and research the musical bike’s different capabilities by composing and performing her own bicycle music. She usually performs these compositions with her company Ideas, Not Theories.

Herrera takes the stage at Shenandoah Conservatory with her composition BIKEncerto: a concerto for solo bicycle and orchestra, an inventive work that reimagines the bicycle as a virtuosic musical instrument. In this captivating concert, Herrera will perform as the bicycle percussion soloist, joined by her ensemble Ideas, Not Theories, performing as the concerto’s orchestra of strings and woodwinds.

Structured in four movements, BIKEncerto explores the surprising musical possibilities of the bicycle — its melodic spokes, frame tubes, tuned tires, chainwheels and wheel rims, transformed into a rich palette of rhythm, color and texture. Each movement highlights a different sonic character of the instrument, revealing how everyday objects can become vehicles for complex and sophisticated musical expression.

By treating bicycles and unconventional percussion with the same seriousness and artistic care as traditional orchestral instruments, Herrera invites audiences to listen differently, discovering beauty, nuance and virtuosity in unexpected places.