"I wanna learn how to play
and sing like Elton John,"

said a 12 year old Nano to his piano teacher.

Sprawled out on sleeping bags with his brothers on “camp out” nights, Nano first fell in love with music listening to his mom play Joan Baez and Peter, Paul and Mary on her Martin guitar. Those early years in Philadelphia with simple and haunting folk melodies primed Nano’s disposition to create. Singing with the Philadelphia Boys’ Choir cemented the need. Captivated by harmonies, Nano was inspired to get back on the piano and start writing his own songs.

While one of just a handful of music majors at Harvard, Nano had his heart set on composing a rock opera for his thesis. Not quite sure what to do with him, the department “suggested” he cross the river to write his thesis at Berklee, a school known for its emphasis on more contemporary music. At Berkelee, Nano found the home he needed to realize his dream. Trained in the classics but schooled on classic rock, Nano’s songs are structured with originality and delivered with raw emotion.

Nano moved to Austin in 2004, gaining attention first as a solo artist, but now happily collaborating with many of the talented musicians in that city (including former Spoon-bassist Joshua Zarbo and renowned jazz singer Kat Edmondson). Nano’s song “Break It On Your Own Time” was recently chosen as the Song of the Day on Austin’s NPR station, KUT and his shows have been highlighted by hometown favorite e-zine, The Austinist.

His songs are honest, heartfelt stories of family ties and tensions, of loves found and lost. Nano is a piano- playing story teller, sometimes migrating to the guitar to better serve the song. But it is his vocals – sometimes soaring, sometimes intimate, always inviting and warm – that truly drive the music he so loves to make.