A Conversation with Singer, Entrepreneur and Teacher Athena Maria

There wasn’t one moment in particular where Athena Pacanins decided she wanted to be a singer. She just always was one.

No one else in her immediate family was musically inclined. But Athena’s mother boasts that she could sing before she could talk. As she grew up, the string pulling her towards music only grew stronger. 

The “secret lovergirl” is born

While others her age spent the COVID-19 pandemic playing Animal Crossing or binge-watching Tiger King, Athena spent quarantine writing. One late night found her penning one of her earliest songs. “Ribbons in Her Hair” told a story of unrequited love, in which a young Athena had a crush on a guy who was in love with someone very close to her. 

“I played [‘Ribbons in Her Hair’] for my family and all of them cried,” she said. “And I really liked that song, and I was like, wow, I can maybe pursue this. And then I started writing more and more and more, and I just got better and better and better.”

She’s been writing ever since, though as she’s grown up, her music taste has grown with her. She now listens to “everything under the sun,” ranging from glitter-pen pop to French fusion jazz, and whatever she’s currently listening to usually inspires what she writes. 

“Right now, I’m listening to a lot of Joni Mitchell, a lot of Nick Drake,” said Athena, “so I’m really kind of in that vibe right now.” 

But generally, her biggest musical influences are Harry Styles, Remi Wolf and Gracie Abrams. And she still takes inspiration directly from her own life, and sometimes from other places that may or may not include One Direction fanfiction. 

From stage to song

Her latest single, “Lemon Juice,” is an Olivia Rodrigo-esque, funk-infused power anthem. It racked in a thousand streams in its first week, already surpassing the goal Athena set for herself to achieve within the first month. Watch any of Athena’s live performances of the track, and you’ll get the strongest urge to scream the lyrics along. Or maybe you’ll really get into it and take a bite out of a lemon — something Athena herself did several times during the promotional stages (and something she does not recommend).

Athena’s explosive stage presence and storytelling are gifts from her childhood training. She, like many other singer-songwriters, started by performing in musical theatre. Her original dream was to be on Broadway, but she soon learned that she wasn’t as passionate about acting as she was about songwriting. Whereas with theatre she would enjoy tech week and the performances but not the process of it, she found she loved every part of songwriting — from fumbling through chords to writing lyrics to creating the final project. 

“I still love musical theatre,” said Athena, who to this day performs with a collegiate musical theatre ensemble. “If someone offered me Jenna in ‘Waitress,’ which is my dream role, I would take it in a heartbeat.”

A frosty change of heart

After growing up a Miami native and additionally spending her teen years at New World School for the Arts — a Miami-based performing arts high school — Athena wanted to take her studies elsewhere. 

Her top choice at the start of her college process was New York University’s Clive Davis Institute. She also applied to Belmont University, Manhattan School of Music, University of Southern California and Florida International University. Long forgotten was the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music, one of the nation’s top contemporary music programs, which resided — perhaps too conveniently — just in Athena’s backyard.

“I was really on this kick of, ‘I want to move out…I want to go somewhere else,’ ” she said. 

Her desire to leave Miami was so powerful that she originally refused to apply to Frost. It was only once her mother told her she wouldn’t be allowed to attend a Louis Tomlinson concert unless she applied that she begrudgingly submitted an application.

“U” came full circle

On her audition day, the American Music Ensemble — the Frost Contemporary Program’s premier performing group — performed to welcome prospective students. 

“I was just in shock…at the maturity of their voices, the song quality of the ones they were singing, the fact there was a full band and it was [completely comprised of] students,” said Athena. “I was, like, jaw on the floor…absolutely blown away.”

Seeing AME perform catapulted Athena into a 360-shift. When commitment day rolled around, she chose UM and threw up the “U” with pride. Now as a senior, she’s one of only five songwriters selected to perform with the ensemble, and it all feels incredibly “full-circle” for her. Her biggest pinch-me moment thus far occurred when she had the opportunity to perform “Lemon Juice” with the ensemble, and she looked out at the crowd to see all of her peers singing along. 

In combining an outfit suitable for a pop-star, a wireless mic and in-ear monitors, “all the little things” came together to make the performance her most magical one yet. 

“I look out, and then I just see everyone singing along,” she recounted, a glowing smile radiating across her face. “I just see everyone bopping along, having a fun time, and like, my friends in the back screaming every single word of the song. It was just such a wonderful moment.”

Changing the beat

Her time at Frost has been, without question, a vital time in her growth as a musician. 

“Coming to college, Nicole Bartholomew taught me music theory. I will forever be in debt to her for teaching me the basics of music theory. And to Dan Strange for teaching me what a 13-flat-9 [chord] is,” said Athena. “I think learning music theory at the same time we were learning piano also really helped me, because then I was able to start expanding more of my songwriting from guitar to piano.”

Apart from simply expanding her musical skill set, she’s grown more confident in her skin, in her talent, in her purpose as a performer.

“In high school, I was never the top of my class. Like, I was never one of the people that my class or my peers were, like, ‘Oh, she’s really good,’ ” Athena recounted. “Going to Frost and being surrounded by…so many talented people and seeing what they do and the way they write songs and their processes and performances — it makes me want to get better, and it makes me want to be, like, ‘I need to be at their level.’ ”

Adding new instruments

Athena likes a challenge. Part of that desire to become the very best she can be has extended toward other parts of her life. Outside of her role as a songwriter, she’s an entrepreneur and a teacher. 

Lovergirl Music Group was born when Athena released her first single, “Secret Lovergirl,” during her sophomore year of college. The independent, self-funded record label started as a way for Athena to claim ownership over her own Limited Liability Company (LLC), a journey she undertook to entitle her to more creative control. Lovergirl Music Group keeps growing, now hosting two artists: Athena Maria, and Sydney Hill, a Frost alumnus. 

Then comes her role as a teacher, which Athena calls the “most rewarding thing” she’s ever done.

She teaches private voice lessons, songwriting, choir and music theory to a range of students. Along with her own private studio, she contributes to Shalala’s Music Outreach Program, the Frost Prep Program and local community arts programs.

Grounding in an ungrounded field

“Teaching put a lot of things into perspective for me, because growing up and even coming to Frost, my main goal was to, like, be a big star and be successful,” Athena shared. 

As most college students do, Athena had to decide for herself what being successful really meant. She understood that being a full-time artist in today’s music industry isn’t easy. This meant she had to grapple with the possibility of finding other means for fulfillment. Since she started teaching, she’s felt more “grounded.”

“Even if I don’t make it as a massive artist…I will be equally happy teaching,” said Athena. “I want to make a difference in the world, whether that be through people connecting with my music or teaching other people how to put their emotions into music.”

Athena utilizes her role as a teacher to share with students what she wishes she’d known earlier. That can range from little tidbits of musical insight…

“I have a Notes app where anything that inspires me, I write it down immediately. It could be a line, a word, anything. I write it down, so that way later on when I’m feeling inspired to write a song, I go back to that note and I look at things that have already inspired me.”

To pieces of sisterly life advice:

“Comparison is the absolute thief of joy, and I’m guilty of it. I’ve gotten a lot better at it, but I’ve started to notice that the more you try to be someone else, people can read that. People can read insecurity. They can smell it.”

Moving forward

Athena Maria is set to graduate from the Frost School of Music next spring, but her story is far from over. She has so much music set to release, including her next single: a favorite entitled, “Syrup.” Beyond her songwriting, she plans to keep teaching and expanding her role as an entrepreneur. Because, as Athena has learned, there isn’t one path to success. There’s a million that all entangle together to find that perfectly satisfying taste of lemon juice on your tongue.