nanosternbio

Singer/songwriter Nano Stern is a Chilean artist riding the crest of the new wave of Chilean Song, with a devoted following that stretches out from Chile, into Latin America, north to Canada and the USA, over to Europe and down in Australia.
His musical virtuosity, mesmerizing and charismatic live performances and his passionate and poetic advocacy for social justice result in a true and honest universal message, delivered with an intense energy and a high level of musicality, dwelling deeply into tradition whilst being contemporary with the passion of youth.

Nano's style is a Latin-Folk-Rock fusion; deeply rooted in traditional Chilean music and inspired by legends Violeta Parra, Victor Jara and Inti-Illimani, yet combined with a host of influences absorbed from his travels around the world, as well as his early classical training. Added to the mix is a love for rock, which results in a truly unique sound, the whole becoming greater than the sum of the parts. Stern is an accomplished musician, playing a range of instruments from Spanish and electric guitars and violin to the Andean and Nordic flutes. What has emerged is a powerhouse artist, brilliantly layering indigenous, African, and European elements into a sound all his own, and humbly bringing audiences to tears, to their feet, and to reverie with a singular kind of emotion and soulfulness unlike any other South American artist performing today.
Not to be underrated is the power and emotion that emanates from his vocal prowess and his intimate and rousing connection to his audiences, at home in Chile and across the world. His contagious personal energy and his fluency in English, German & French (among other languages) allow him to warmly include his international audiences in the stories of his Spanish songs.

BIOGRAPHY

Nano Stern's path as an artist follows richly crafted song lines laid by his family and his Chilean musical ancestry, and unites those with a sound utterly fresh and relevant. Nano has found something within that has positioned him as the voice of a generation. The grandson of Jewish refugees fleeing persecution, Nano's childhood was painted vivid by not only his own family's activism and musicianship but by the powerful legacy of the Nueva Cancion movement lead by Chilean musical activists during Pinochet's dictatorship a generation before. Legends like Inti-Illimani and Victor Jara - who suffered exile and even death during these troubling times - continue to inspire Nano's breadth of sound and emotion. ''I am extremely respectful of the tradition,'' explains Stern, ''It is an enormous gift we received from the people of the past.'

When only fifteen, Nano joined popular Chilean underground band, Mattoral, and thus was initiated into the fresh, new sounds and socio-political pulse of the South American rock/punk scene. The thick rock-energy of Mattoral, his classical and jazz training, and the powerful influence of traditional, Chilean revolutionary music make for something purely Nano. ''I'm generally working to create a language of my own,'' he says. The world emphatically agrees.

Folk legend Joan Baez remarked, ''[Nano] may be the best young Chilean songwriter of his generation. With his lyrics, melodies, message, delivery, humor and heart, he gets my vote''. Agile across a range of instruments, Nano's closest companions remain simply his guitar and staggering vocals, and with them come fluent, extraordinary musicianship and a wide-open heart.

Oscillating between the personal and the political, outspoken, passionate, and experimental, it is perhaps Nano himself who captures his musical ethic best when remarking, ''In the measure that I'm able to vibrate strongly, other people will resonate. If that frequency is intense, other things around it will vibrate together with it. Music in the end is that. We can put aside words, and genre, and tradition. In the end, it is all about a movement of air that makes our bodies move. It's the most mysterious thing.''

Stern's rise to fame has been meteoric, with a recording career spanning five years that includes four award winning and critically acclaimed solo albums, a live solo album from Australia, a DVD and collaborations with Swedish guitar master Mattias Perez ("Otonal") and youth folk super group Ethno in Transit.
In 2011, Nano emerged as a producer of an award winning album for Australian world and folk legend, Kavisha Mazella and in 2012 was invited to compose and record a song for Chilean legends, Inti-Illimani for their 45th anniversary CD.
In 2014 Nano released San Diego 850, a live 2 CD/DVD set from his November, 2013 concert at the Teatro Caupolican [Santiago, Chile]. In 2015 Nano released his 5th studio album, Mil 500 Vueltas, featuring guests Jorge Drexler and Joan Baez. The CD immediately became #1 iTunes Chile and went Gold in September, 2015.

Nano's stature in Chile has risen to the point of being woven into Chile's cultural history. His albums sit at the top of the download charts and have received unanimous critical praise. He fills theatres and halls across the country, performs at Chile's biggest festivals and is a consistently intelligent and compassionate voice in the national media. In 2013 Nano was invited to perform for the 40th anniversary of the death of Victor Jara, recording Jara's most famous song, Lo unico ue tengo, on the university campus where Victor Jara was captured.

Nano Stern has attracted a dedicated following wherever he goes, from the smallest local communities in the southern most human settlement of Patagonia to the biggest stages and festivals in Chile, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico and Uruguay. In Australia he has consistently been the stand out new act at leading festivals, including WOMADelaide and the Woodford, Port Fairy and Brunswick festivals. While in Europe, Nano has gone from barefoot hitchhiking through Ethno gatherings to the festival stages of WOMAD UK, Sziget (Hungary), Bardentreffen (Germany), Kaustinen (Finland), Viljandi (Estonia), Sfinks (Belgium), Urkult (Sweden) among others. Highlights of 2014 included Lollapalooza Chile, WOMAD Chile; performances in Chile with America's queen of folk music, Joan Baez and his debut North American tour. February 27, 2015 Nano closed the Festival Vina del Mar (Chile), televised by TNN, and in the fall of 2015 he introduced his band to North American audiences with performances in NM, TX, CA, NYC, PA and NC.
On January 27, 2016 Joan Baez celebrated her 75th birthday in grand style at New York's Beacon Theatre. Ms. Baez gathered together some of her oldest, and newest, friends: Paul Simon, Jackson Brown, Judy Collins, Richard Thompson, Damien Rice, Mavis Staples, Emmylou Harris, David Bromberg and Nano Stern. The concert was recorded by New York's Channel 13 for the PBS program Great Performances to be broadcast June 2016.