Nick Cianci & The Heights

Nick Cianci is an 19 year-old singer/songwriter/guitarist from Malvern, PA who attends New York University’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music in New York City.

Nick began playing guitar at age 9, heavily influenced by the rock and blues styles of Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Warren Haynes, and John Mayer. At age 11 Nick enrolled in the School of Rock in Downingtown PA and began a seven-year career where he played in over 75 shows and was selected for three tours with the traveling School of Rock All-Stars.

At age 14, Nick formed the blues-rock trio Riley Road with bass player Brandon Walker and drummer Isaiah Weatherspoon. As the principal song-writer, singer, and guitarist, Nick led the band for four years to great acclaim in the Philadelphia music scene. Riley Road won numerous music competitions (including the 2012 World Café Live Beta Hi-Fi Emerging Music Festival, besting over 200 other bands) and played over 75 gigs to thousands of fans including headlining the Phoenixville BluesFest twice and participating in the International Blues Competition in Memphis in 2013.

In 2012 the band released their self-titled EP, Riley Road. The song “Tied to Me” from the EP and the follow up later in 2012 titled “Better Man” have received significant airplay on the legendary Philadelphia radio stations WXPN and WMMR, in addition to numerous internet radio stations.

In 2013 Nick was inducted into the Brotherhood of the Guitar, an international society of young musicians founded by iconic rock photographer Robert Knight and sponsored by Guitar Center, Fender, and Ernie Ball Strings. In November 2013 Nick was featured in Guitar Center’s monthly guitar buyer’s guide as one of Tomorrow’s Guitar Heroes.

In August and September of 2014 Nick was chosen to support America's Got Talent contestants Miguel Dakota, cellists Emil and Dariel, and boy-wonder singer Quintavious Johnson in the quarter-final, semi-final and final rounds of season 9 of the AGT show, performed "live" at Radio City Music Hall and in front of a national TV audience on NBC. Highlights included Nick playing electric guitar and singing back-up vocals on Dakota's electrifying covers of "Come Together" and "Seven Nation Army," and playing lead guitar for Emil and Dariel on their interpretation of the Guns N Roses' version of Paul McCartney's "Live and Let Die".
Nick's first release as a solo artist, "Smoke in the Wind" has gotten regular airplay at WXPN in Philadelphia and was nominated in 2014 as "Song of the Year" in WSTW's (Wilmington, DE) "Homey Awards". He is currently being backed by The Heights, a NYC-based ensemble, and they are playing at various venues in and around New York City.