Today we’d like to introduce you to Syrena.
Syrena, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I grew up in Queens, NY, in a very artistic and hardworking family. My mother is a master bellydancer, choreographer, teacher, and writer, and my father is a Lebanese immigrant who worked his way up to manage a large company after arriving in NYC in his 20s, and later on opened a Bellydance store and dance studio along with my mother by the time I was 10. I started performing on stage around four years old and was put into various dance, singing, circus, and acting classes which I took to immediately and found my passion in singing.
At 14, I entered Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of the Performing Arts as a vocal major, and through their vigorous program honed my knowledge and passion for music, and got even more serious about pursuing a career as a singer and a songwriter. After landing a lead role in the school’s opera program and graduating high school, I decided to further pursue opera and went to the Manhattan School of Music as a classical voice major. However, even though I did well and enjoyed studying at a conservatory, I decided to drop out after my first year and put my full force behind having a career as a pop artist.
After dropping out, I wanted to find a job so I could continue living independently and fund my music projects. I didn’t want to work outside of the performing arts, so I trained with my mother extensively over the summer after I dropped out to get work Bellydancing for private parties, nightclubs and restaurants in NYC. At the same time, I also found work singing for parties and restaurants, working for a singing telegram company, and over the next few years relearned the variety performance skills I had studied when I was younger like snake charming, fire performance/fire eating, and aerial acrobatics to make sure I always had different performance skills to offer for an event.
I fell in love with variety performing, and within a year of working was chosen as the dance soloist for The Metropolitan Opera’s 2017 production of Thaïs, toured as a soloist singing for the folk musical Lonesome Traveler with Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul, and Mary, and performed at large scale events nationally and internationally at venues including Avalon Hollywood and Capitale NYC, along with countless other smaller restaurant shows and events. While I was working as a performer, I was also in and out of the studio writing and trying to find my sound as an artist.
After releasing a few singles recorded in NYC, I traveled to LA in 2018 to find a fresh sound and expand my network of producers and collaborators. I decided to move to LA in 2019, and after writing and collaborating in various studios for a few months including the prestigious NRG recording studios, I met a producer named Scott Byrne at a singer/songwriter meet up. We had many things in common musically, and became fast friends and subsequently started dating and collaborating on music.
When the COVID pandemic hit and the entertainment business screeched to a halt, I escaped with Scott to his apartment and home studio in Texas, where we could continue working on a pop album we had started. We experienced a burst of creativity in self-isolation, and are close to completing the project.
As the world begins to reopen, I’ll be moving back to NYC for offers I received in the variety performance world, but I’ll be back and forth to Los Angeles to write and perform as soon as possible. In the meantime, I’ll be finishing the album with Scott and releasing a clutch new singles leading up to it. My newest single ‘Sweet Talker’ is out now on all streaming platforms!
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Keeping up the balancing act of being a full time, fully booked performer and trying to make space to be creative as a writer is very tough. My work life before the pandemic was very fast-paced, and since I am completely freelance I had to coordinate all of my own bookings and work double to keep gigs that were highly sought after by other performers. It was hard to practice or write during very busy seasons, and it’s easy to get distracted from your creative goals when you’re trying to earn a living in a competitive field.
It was also tough finding my sound and finding the self-confidence to be truly authentic with the music I made. I have social anxiety and am a bit of a people pleaser, so at one point I got into a bad habit of giving in to what other people wanted against my better judgment, and it became hard to trust my inner voice and instincts. I’ve always felt that having an open mind and compromising is important, but it’s another skill entirely to learn who’s opinion you can trust and who has your best interest at heart.
We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
For the variety performance side of my life, I’m currently focused on creating new acts and upgrading old ones with costume, prop, and character updates; specifically my chanteuse acts. I’ll be ready to debut them once entertainment reopens! On the music side, I’m learning techniques for video editing, photography, and music production so I can get more specific about how I want my songs and visuals to work together, and to make sure the upcoming EP/album is exactly how I envision it.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
My plans for the future include releasing a full-length album and building a live show that I can tour with that fuses my variety skill sets into the aesthetics of my brand as an artist. It’s really exciting to work on the show, because I haven’t seen a lot of my style of performing in the sphere of pop music, and I feel it will bring something different and exciting for the audience to experience.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.iamsyrena.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/syrena/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SyrenaOfficial
Image Credit:
First Image: Chris Lee – The Metropolitan Opera, Second Image: Natasha Ribeiro-Austrich, Third Image: Von Mitchell, Fourth Image: AJR Photo – The Great Gatsby Party with Astarte Creative, Fifth Image: Natasha Ribeiro-Austrich, Sixth Image: AJR Photo – The Great Gatsby Party with Astarte Creative, Seventh Image: Daniel D’Ottavio, Eighth Image: AJR Photo – The Great Gatsby Party with Astarte Creative
Suggest a story: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
