Excellence In Jazz On Campus: Nick Augusta
8-9 p.m.
Pianist Nick Augusta, a junior at Rio Americano High School, is already making plans to major in music in college and then go on to make music his career. Augusta has traveled with the Rio AM Ensemble to the Mingus competition in New York City and is presently touring Japan with this group, under the direction of Josh Murray.
He began playing trumpet with the Sacramento Youth Band while simultaneously studying classical piano. The transition from classical to jazz wasn’t too difficult for this gifted pianist. “I knew very little about jazz theory, but the skills that I developed playing classical translated easily to my jazz playing,” said Augusta.
His favorite pianists include Bill Evans, Brad Mehldau, Oscar Peterson, and Taylor Eigsti. “I try to listen to a lot of different pianists from different generations, so I have a wide range of influences and I’m not limited to one era!”
