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 will join 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 Ros, Nu Deco Ensemble, the New York Philharmonic, and Yo-Yo Ma.
His recent output as a composer includes the August 2023 world premiere of his Symphony No. 1, by the SF Civic Symphony and conductor Arun Saigal, 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 music centers on themes of family, hope, mental health, and nature, and it 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.
He is a faculty member at Stanford University, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Pre-College Division, and the SF Symphony Youth Orchestra. As a guest educator, he has taught recently at Rice, 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 SF 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.