Pianist Brings Night of Spontaneity to Girdwood Chapel

Whether an audience of 20 or 200 the performance is the same, John Nilson said. He played a medley of original compositions, classic, and folk rock numbers. (Photo by Soren Wuerth)

By Soren Wuerth

TNews Editor

In a valley largely bereft of exposure to classical music, the announcement of a piano recital may have caused a stir.

Would he play Bach? Chopin? Mozart? There was nothing in the program. In fact, there was no  program. 

And what to wear? Do we find that suit coat in the far corner of the closet reserved for a night out in Anchorage? Tough sartorial decisions—a piano recital!

As it turned out, dress was casual and the pews roomy for Friday evening's virtuoso performance by Oregon's John Nilson at the resilient Methodist chapel.

Nilsen, wearing a light blue shirt, moved to the front of the hall where a small piano stood and sat down. He played immediately, songs that seemed to follow on another in an improvisational manner.

Nilsen started playing piano at the age of six learning from a piano-teaching mother, he told his audience during biographical digressions. 

Girdwood's Chapel hosted musician John Nilson last Friday. (Photo by Soren Wuerth)

Raised in Seattle, Nilsen eventually settled outside Portland where he plays piano and guitar with a "folk rock" band called Swimfish. He has 22 albums out and has written compulsively since he was a teenager. He said he composed his first song when he was nine.

Nilson took to the keys again, moving easily through genres. At one moment, "What a Wonderful World" emerged and he let the song continue to a close, lingering on a final note that dissipated into the church.

"I can't take credit for that one," he said before talking more about his past.

Hearing the Beatles for the first time when he was seven and, two years later, composing his first song, "changed my life," Nilsen said. "It unlocked something in me that was very profound."

When he was 20, he and a friend took in their first money from a gig: four dollars. 

"That was the good news. The bad news is we had to split it," he said. 

Over time, though, Nilsen would win acclaim as a Yamaha Piano Artist, record solo piano records, and, through a record label he founded, "Magic Wing", produce a swell of CDs.

With such mastery and musical leverage, Nilson doesn't need or want a plan for his performances. He prefers spontaneity inspired by his circumstance. He said he hasn't made a set list in 35 years. A program is a kind of a trap for Nilson.

"Nobody should tell you what to be if you're an artist," he said. "You get inspired by other people and other things places like Girdwood and Alyeska and Homer and Portland and the Pacific Coast."

"I don't care if it's the dust on the side of the road, there's inspiration in everything," he said. "You just have to walk around and keep your eyes open."

"I played last night in Soldotna and this woman came up and said, 'I had no idea what this is going to be.' And I said, 'What did you think it was going to be?' And she said, 'I thought it was going to be a lot more formal and classical.' And we both agreed that was very cool. But she said, 'This was a bigger surprise than I expected. And in a good way.'"

Nilsen played a few notes, then paused.

"I know I go out and hear a lot of music and there's nothing like being inspired when we weren't expecting to be."

And he did play Beethoven, after all.