Nano Whitman

"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 Berklee, 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, 28, won first prize in the 2010 Billboard World Song Contest for Americana/Folk. His song, “Break It On Your Own Time” has twice been chosen as the Song of the Day on Austin’s NPR station, KUT. Nano will spend October and November of 2010 in Los Angeles with ASCAP's Lester Sill Songwriter Workshop, a program for which 14 people were chosen to seminar with the likes of George Martin, Ben Harper and Jackson Browne. Playing with a new band, Nano’s live performances have been gaining notice and his shows have been highlighted by local e-zines and blogs such as Big Western Flavor and 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.