We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Nicholas Sanders. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Nicholas below.

Nicholas, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?

I believe the most important aspect to being a creative artist is having artistic integrity.  I have 5 albums out so far as a leader, (3 piano trio albums, one solo piano album, and a duo album) with 85% of that material being original compositions and I couldn’t be prouder and more satisfied personally with them. I feel lucky to have been able to make the music I wanted to make, with the people I wanted to make it with, in the way that I wanted to make it. That being said, it’s easy sometimes to get frustrated if your form of self-expression/compositional vision doesn’t resonate with a broader audience in a shorter time frame, especially given today’s attention economy and overuse of social media and overstimulation in general. I have a lot of thoughts about how a capitalistic societal framework intermingles with art and it’s challenging to try to make the two harmonize well together sometimes. Through all that, I’ve realized that the element of not compromising your artistic vision in the long run is much more satisfying than forcing yourself to make something so that people will like it. I’m not going to try and be someone I’m not for the sake of fame or popularity. That’s not to say that a lot of my music isn’t accessible to a wider audience because I think it definitely is, but when I am composing new music, it’s never coming from a place of “Let me create something with the main goal being that people will like it a lot”. Ultimately, you can’t control what people will think about your work anyway, so why try to read the minds of the general public at the expense of your artistic integrity and vision? I always strive to be honest with my work and do what feels right to me artistically. If people like it that’s awesome, but if not, that’s okay too. 

I never shy away from going with what I am interested in creatively at any given time and sometimes it works well and other not so much. However, it’s important to go with the flow as part of the creative process and get all of your ideas out of your system no matter where it leads!

Nicholas, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin but was raised primarily in New Orleans, Louisiana to a musical family. My Dad had been a drummer in a rock band called The Sheiks for close to 20 years and my mother was originally from Cuba and exposed me to many different types of music. We always had all sorts of CD’s and different things playing in the house and the car when I was growing up.

I started playing piano at the age of 7 after becoming obsessed with Mozart because of a school play my 2nd grade teacher created called “Of Mice and Mozart:” I was one of the mice in the play and had a few acting lines but I was really exposed to his music and loved it. Around the age of 11 or so I realized that I wanted music to be the main focus of my life so I took it more seriously and started entering more competitions/performances and began practicing longer hours and playing more advanced repertoire. In high school I decided to be homeschooled so I could practice more and I also attended the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA) for classical music initially but then switched over to Jazz and improvisation in my junior and senior years. I studied with the late great Alvin Batiste and also the New Orleans jazz pianist Michael Pellera. NOCCA was amazing because I got a chance to try out a lot of things and play for some really fantastic musicians like Bonnie Raitt, McCoy Tyner, and Jon Cleary to name a few. I started playing some gigs around the city and even won a national jazz competition with a piano trio that got to open for Chick Corea!

After that, I attended the New England Conservatory (NEC) on full scholarship in Boston for my Undergraduate and Graduate degrees. When I was there, I had the opportunity to study with Danilo Perez, Fred Hersch, Jason Moran, Jerry Bergonzi, George Garzone, Cecil McBee and Joe Morris among others. It was really a dream come true for me in terms of teachers and mentors. Towards the end of my time at NEC, Fred Hersch offered to produce my first two piano trio albums which was an incredible experience and shortly after that I was signed to Sunnyside Records in New York and moved there in 2012. While in New York, I got the opportunity to play a lot of really great performances and meet a lot of other likeminded musicians. I also started my own teaching studio and had about 25 students which was fantastic. Teaching is something that I also have enjoyed doing over the years and will continue to cultivate as I move forward. As far as my next creative projects are concerned, right now is sort of a blank canvas for me which is nice! I want to definitely try out some new influences and expand my musical voice in the future.

What do you find most rewarding about being creative?

The most rewarding aspect for me is the feeling I get in the present moment playing and being able to share that experience with others especially in a live setting. Also, it’s interesting to compose a piece of music and see how it evolves over time as I continue to play it. Many times, the starting point that I have as an idea is often times completely different later on as time goes by. Additionally, being able to converse with other artists and bounce ideas back and forth can be rewarding too.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

When the pandemic happened, I immediately had to pivot to remote teaching lessons with all my private students. It’s interesting because in some ways it’s not as beneficial but in other ways it is. Being able to share my screen to look at a score where I can mark it up as much as I need to in real time and erase very quickly save a lot of time as opposed to doing that in person. On the other hand, not being there in person can be a bit more difficult to teach the more physical aspects of playing the piano…so there are definitely pros and cons to going remote. I’m sure many other people can relate to this happening to them in all different fields of work.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.nicksandersmusic.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/nicksandersmusic
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nicksanderskeys/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-sanders-23416931/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/nsandersmusic
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/nicksandersmusic
• Other: Bandcamp – https://nicksanderspiano.bandcamp.com/

Image Credits
Photos taken by Chris Drukker