George Groebner/The Mossy Log
For the first several minutes of Nick Manley’s senior piano recital on Saturday, Nov. 15, a casual observer could have mistakenly believed that they were watching a short film festival, albeit a festival that was located in the Evans Auditorium and heavily attended by music students and faculty.
As the audience settled into their seats, a video collage consisting of hikers, murals and scenic Pacific Northwest forest views played on the projector. Captured by Manley over the summer on a camcorder he found at a garage sale, the footage featured his friends and girlfriend. It was accompanied by an original song titled “The First Song” that he composed for instructor Jeff Leonard’s electronic music seminar. For a substantial section of the collage, the frantic, uptempo melodies and complex rhythmic patterns of “The First Song” were juxtaposed with the continuous visual of a flowing mountain river. The camera panned back and forth repeatedly showing a man about to dive in but never quite taking the plunge.
The collage concluded to applause as Manley took the stage on piano alongside four other musicians: James Iskander ’26 on guitar, Judah Golub ’27 on drums, alum Peter Smith ’24 on guitar and Nico Vilches ’26 on bass. All five are in the student band Pickpocket, which they formed at LC in 2023.
The quintet launched into “Song no. 1,” an electronic-influenced jazz fusion piece composed by Manley. They then played Herbie Hancock’s “Tell Me a Bedtime Story,” followed by Manley’s “Song no. 2.” Throughout each piece, the musicians looked back and forth at each other to ensure cohesion in tempo and solo order. Like the river in the video collage, the music flowed with liveliness and unpredictability, but also with constant direction.
Though performing alongside four other musicians may seem less daunting than performing solo, it comes with specific challenges — particularly in the case of the Pickpocket arrangement which contains piano and two guitars, all of which have similar tonal ranges.
“When it’s just me comping (accompanying) I can kind of do whatever, but with the guitars, it’s splitting up the comping, or maybe somebody’s going to be more rhythmic than somebody else,” Manley said.
Iskander added that the band’s previous experience playing together has made them aware of each other’s comping styles.
“Nick loves to play really beautiful, nice, wide-range voices, and Peter tends to play pretty staccato, he likes to play up high… and so that leaves me in the middle to try to fill in,” Iskander said. “I don’t need to do a lot. I can just alternate between a couple notes and just leave a lot of space.”
After the jazz waltz “Someday My Prince Will Come” by Larry Morey and Frank Churchill, everybody except Manley left the stage. Seated at the acoustic piano with his back to much of the audience, Manley played the third movement of Ludwig Van Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 17 in D Minor, Op. 31 No. 2, “Tempest”, a piece with more drama and brio than its title has words. The piece is full of descending runs and hammering, pedaled bass notes. “Tempest” lasted several minutes and was performed entirely from memory. Though he memorized all his music for the recital, Manley noted in an interview afterward that the classical pieces were much harder to memorize than his originals.
Yoko Greeney, adjunct professor of classical piano at LC and one of the instructors credited in the program at Manley’s recital, said she was very impressed with Manley’s performance, calling it “beyond my expectations.”
“We worked on tons of technique in the past two years … in the first lesson here, he didn’t have that kind of sound,” Greeney said. “I suggest something, and he can do it immediately, he can adjust.”
Pickpocket then came back on stage for Antônio Carlos Jobim’s “Look to the Sky,” a breezy bossa nova palate cleanser. After that, Manley was again left alone on stage to perform Sergei Rachmaninov’s Prelude Op. 3 No. 2 in C Sharp Minor, a difficult key on the piano. The piece began slowly, with an almost plodding texture, vacillating between the relative major key of E major, before ramping upward with the return of the hammering bass notes as Manley’s hands jumped all over the keys. The piece coalesced into a dramatic, expressive wall of sound before ending resoundingly.
Greeney said this expressiveness is a central component to the Romantic era of classical music, to which Rachmaninov belonged.
“In Romantic (pieces), composers are more about expressing emotion, or telling stories, or kind of painting with sound, so it’s more free,” Greeney said. “You have to push and pull.”
After taking a bow with the rest of Pickpocket, Manley walked off stage to accept flowers and sign programs in the Evans Lobby. The projector came to life again and played another video collage, this time showing cozier, less suspenseful footage over one of Manley’s more ambient and relaxed electronic compositions. The recital ended as it began with a multi-media presentation of Manley’s work, adding new levels of thematic imagery to the experience.
Next fall, Manley will be traveling to London with LC’s study abroad program. He is hoping to relax and enjoy the study-abroad experience, but also, of course, is looking to keep playing music.
“Now I don’t have to worry about anything. I can just be in London and hang out, and hopefully I’ll be able to play there a little bit,” Manley said.
He added that he has been looking into London jazz clubs where he could sit in with bands.
Greeney, for her part, is proud of Manley. She is looking forward to his musical future.
“I saw his potential, and I still think he can go from here. His potential is not maxed,” Greeney said.
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