Nan Macmillan Artist Bio
Singer, songwriter and instrumentalist, Nan Macmillan came to this earth
brimming with songs. Inspired by Folk, Americana, and Bluegrass styles, her lyrics are
rich and complex, rooted in natural imagery. Her voice is at once soothing and haunting,
a blend of Joni Mitchell’s wistfulness and Gillian Welch’s warmth and rawness.
Raised in the suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts, Nan began songwriting and
playing guitar when she was 12 years old. She performed at local coffee shops in the
Boston area, with encouragement from her family and her guitar teacher. In 2009, she
moved to Ojai, CA for her high school years, where she continued developing her
original music. Some highlights include recording demos in Nashville, performing at Old
Settler’s Music Festival in Austin, Texas, and recording a single at Academy Award
winning film composer James Newton Howard’s studio in Los Angeles.
She then relocated to Charlottesville, Virginia where she attended University of
Virginia and graduated with a double major in Poetry Writing and Music. In her four
years there, she was very active in the local music scene – interning at a local radio
station, a music management firm, and a recording studio, and performing around
town. She dove deep into creative writing during this time, resulting in multiple
publications and being awarded the Hannah Kahn Poetry Prize for the best poem by a
graduating English major.
Nan is currently completing a Masters in Contemporary Performance with a
Production Concentration at Berklee College of Music in Valencia, Spain, where she
continues to write, record, and perform. She has played in small venues around
Valencia, as well as at theaters and concert halls with the school’s American Roots
Ensemble, led by the prominent Bluegrass fiddle player, Casey Driessen. She plans to
move to Nashville in the fall to immerse herself in the community of songwriters in the
city.