Reana Kirzten
About Reana
Reana Kirzten Villanueva is a U.S.-based music technologist, multimedia artist, electronic musician, and creative director specializing in music production, interdisciplinary art, and live electronic performance. As a Berklee College of Music alumna, Reana obtained her Bachelor's degree in Electronic Production & Sound Design with minors in Visual Media and Electronic Performance. During her time at Berklee, she created eye-catching auditory experiences while doubling as an electronic performer in the intimate Red Room at 939 to large multipurpose spaces like Agganis Arena. As a recipient of the Berklee World Tour Scholarship, Thrive Scholarship, and the 2024 Best of Berklee Club Leader of the Year Award, she solidified her roles as a creative thinker and leader. In April 2024, Reana’s piece, Breakthrough, was selected for inclusion in the EPD Compilation Album from a pool of 3,000+ music productions.
Post-graduation, Reana worked as an Audio Post-Producer and Voiceover Artist for leading tech firms, xAI and Mercor. She is also part of the GRAMMY U program of The Recording Academy and the Association of Music Producers (AMP). Her visualizers and performance videos amassed up to thousands of views on social media platforms, with some noticed by notable music tech companies such as Novation and Avid. As of now, Reana builds hybrid workflows to actively collaborate with production teams and entertainment companies across major cities like New York City and Los Angeles, while managing three projects : KIRZTEN, her independent artist project where she makes electronic music with themes of empowerment and optimism; KIRZTEN Productions, a micro-brand music technology business offering online music tech resources to global creators; and CHROMA Connect, a multimedia franchise involving an artist collective advocating for versatility in the music industry. Reana is also preparing the release of her debut EP, Rejuvenate, on major streaming platforms.
Reana's Story
Since childhood, Reana had formal training and performing experience in the pop, ballad, and musical theatre vocal styles, along with classical piano. She participated in the Certificate of Merit program of the Music Teachers’ Association of California (MTAC), where she was taught by Ophelia Raboca, Founder of the San Jose Academy of Music (SJAM), and received annual certificates for the study of piano proficiency. Reana earned the Branch Honors and New Materials Awards as a result of her soaring scores on MTAC’s Certificate of Merit evaluation. Reana later developed a strong fondness for electronic music in the Spring of 2016, when she discovered the song, Smoke by Au5 and Fractal, during a road trip from Las Vegas. She fell in love with the unconventional sonic modulations in the piece, that it drove her curious to make similar auditory masterpieces. As a result, Reana became inspired to create her own music and teach herself production with mobile DAWs at the age of 17.
After graduating high school, Reana broadened her artistic skillset upon the arrival of the 2020 Pandemic. During this time, she directed three projects : Luminescence, a virtual electronic pop-rock band; Project Protection Alliance, a musical-action stop-motion project, and Melodious Epiphany, an animated voice-acted multimedia franchise that involved soundtracks, skits, and 47 characters in 7 vocalist groups. Through these projects, she obtained additional skills in scriptwriting, digital design, video editing, and voice acting. On the side, she provided voiceover work for the Garupa Pico English Fandub, a project behind the fan-made english adaptation of Bushiroad's Japanese Chibi Series, Garupa Pico.
At Berklee, she honed her music production skills in industry-standard DAWs and immersed herself into the experimental realm of electronic performance. Reana's developed songwriting knowledge led her to produce Breakthrough, an original cinematic electro-fusion song that shares empowering themes of passion and authenticity. This song alludes to a tough experience of restriction in Reana's life, with a profound message to break into the realm of desire that one envisions. Reana aims to write powerful call-to-action pieces that pull others out of the shadows.