Biography
Nick Platoff harnesses the power of music to deliver compounding benefit to the world. He enjoys a multi-faceted career as a trombonist, composer/producer, singer, educator, conductor, and concert producer. After eight seasons as Associate Principal Trombone of the San Francisco Symphony, where he was appointed by Michael Tilson Thomas at age 23, Nick joined the Houston Symphony Orchestra as Principal Trombone in September 2024.
Nick loves using music to delight, inspire, and empower audiences, and does so in a wide variety of mediums and genres as a soloist as well as in collaboration with artists like Jacob Collier, KNOWER, esperanza spalding, Common, Metallica, Steve Lacy, Sigur Rós, Nu Deco Ensemble, the New York Philharmonic, and Yo-Yo Ma.
Recent highlights include conducting the Stanford Brass Ensemble on a concert which included the world premiere of his The Fanford Stanfare, composing music for Ramazan Nanayev’s film Ikigai and producing a silly music video about spies, both to be premiered Fall 2024. In August 2024, he toured Spain with Zirzuví, a Santa Cruz based band specializing in Sephardic music. Other proud moments include the August 2023 world premiere of his Symphony No. 1 with the SF Civic Symphony, and the November 2022 release of his debut album Limousine of Creative Potential featuring songs written and recorded in his friend Joel’s limousine during the pandemic.
Nick’s compositions center on themes of family, hope, mental health, and nature, and he genre-hops between the symphonic world, silly-pop, bumpin’ funk bangers, heartfelt tributes, and jungle soundscape. He regularly performs as a singer-songwriter on the Sofar Sounds series.
Nick has previously served as a faculty member at Stanford University, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Pre-College Division, and the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra. As a guest educator, he has recently taught at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, Yale, Juilliard, the National Orchestral Institute, and Amateur Music Network. He has collaborated as video producer and co-host with his father, musicologist John Platoff, on various San Francisco Symphony online educational events as well as the Professor Platoff YouTube channel. Nick is a proud alumnus of New Haven’s Neighborhood Music School, Northwestern University, and the New World Symphony.
Photo credit: Ling Wang