Reana Kirzten
ABOUT REANA
Reana Kirzten Villanueva is a music technologist, curator, multimedia artist, and electronic musician based in New York City. She specializes in music production, audio operations, media, interdisciplinary art, and live electronic performance.
Through her early youth, Reana was an active participant in professional organizations such as the Music Teachers’ Association of California (MTAC) enrolled in the Certificate of Merit (CM) program, receiving CM awards for piano proficiency. Throughout her training, she was taught by Ophelia Raboca, the Founder and Director of the San Jose Academy of Music (SJAM). Reana has been selected to receive the CM Branch Honors Award and the New Materials State Convention Award as a result of obtaining soaring scores on MTAC’s CM evaluation. During her college career, she was a former member of the nationally-accredited Audio Engineering Society (AES), and currently holds membership as a GRAMMY U member of the Recording Academy (NARAS), as well as a member of the Association of Music Producers (AMP). Her recent career experiences include working as an Audio Post-Production Editor and Voiceover Artist under the notorious AI research firm, xAI, and as a Music Curator at the global music publishing company, Kobalt Music.
Reana is an alumna and merit scholar from Berklee College of Music with a Bachelor of Music (B.M.) degree in Electronic Production and Design (EPD) and a double minor in Visual Culture/New Media Studies and Electronic Performance. At Berklee, she honed her craft in creating dynamic, eye-catching and auditory experiences, as well as taking on the school's concert venues as an electronic performer. As a recipient of the Berklee World Tour Scholarship, Thrive Scholarship, and the 2024 Best of Berklee “Club Leader of the Year” Award, Reana also solidifies her roles as a creative thinker and leader. Additionally, Reana’s original piece, "Breakthrough", which she produced under her electronic artist moniker, "Kirzten", has been selected as the finalist track on the 2024 EPD Compilation Album.
Reana will begin pursuing her Master of Music (M.M.) degree in Music Technology at the New York University (NYU) Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. Reana is also preparing for her debut EP, "Rejuvenate", under her upcoming artist project "Kirzten". She plans to release this on major streaming platforms in 2025.
Reana's Story
Formerly trained in private lessons for the pop, ballad, and musical theatre vocal styles, along with classical piano during her early childhood, Reana developed a strong fondness for electronic music at the age of 14, when she discovered the song, “Smoke”, produced by Au5 and Fractal, during a long road trip back home from Las Vegas. She fell in love with the unconventional sonic modulations embroidered throughout the piece, that it drove her curiosity to learn how to make similar engaging auditory masterpieces. As a result, Reana became inspired to create music of her own and began teaching herself music production at 17 years old.
The 2020-2021 pandemic provided several outlets for Reana to broaden her creative skillset. During this time, she kept herself occupied with her two creative projects : Luminescence, a virtual band, and Melodious Epiphany, a multimedia project that involved original music, acting, and skits. Through these projects, she further developed her skills in music production and singing, along with songwriting, scriptwriting, arranging, digital art, photo/video editing, web design, and voice acting.
Throughout her time at Berklee, she applied a formal, advanced knowledge of production and sound design with her professional endeavors, working at Berklee's information technology labs to support students with assignments, mix engineering projects for clients, providing productions for peer arrangements, and tutoring students in the fundamentals of music technology. Over time, she also became immersed into the realm of electronic performance, as her unforgettable experience was performing at the 2024 Berklee Electronic Singer-Songwriter Night in the Red Room at Cafe 939.
In August of 2023, Reana’s experience in production and recent admiration for songwriting led her to create an original piece called “Breakthrough”, a cinematic electro-fusion song that conveys empowering messages of passion and authenticity. Despite the simplicity of the lyrics, this song holds a profound meaning that alludes to a past experience in Reana’s life when she was going through one of the toughest times of her life, situated in a place of oblivion where her desires were restricted and her goals seemed unattainable. The song addressed the perplexing decision between staying in an unwanted reality that would engulf her for the remainder of her life or breaking free into the realm of opportunity she envisioned. Reana hopes to sonically and lyrically reach others with powerful call-to-action pieces that would release those who are stuck in a lingering darkness into a light of hope.
After finishing the first demo of this piece as a final project for a vocal production class, Berklee EPD Professor, Claire Marie Lim, made the decision to submit Reana’s song as a candidate for the 2024 Berklee EPD Department Compilation Album, and the song had officially been selected for inclusion in April of 2024.
“Passion is the strongest emotion that fuels purpose and disregards oblivion.
It starts off as a simple admiration that becomes so strong, it evolves into desire, zeal, then an unwavering feeling that provides you with the clarity to see the value you have in the world.
Next time you ask yourself “Who am I?” or "What am I here for?" Pursuing your passion can unveil your answer.”
~ Reana, 2024
