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Nick Platoff

Lecturer
Area(s) of Expertise
Degrees / Education
Bachelor of Music - Northwestern University

Nick Platoff was appointed to the position of Associate Principal Trombone of the San Francisco Symphony by Michael Tilson Thomas in 2016, at the age of twenty-three.

Committed to harnessing the power of music to deliver compounding benefit, he enjoys a multi-faceted career as a composer, producer, soloist, vocalist, improviser, recording and video artist, educator, conductor, chamber musician, YouTuber, and concert producer. Nick loves using music to delight, inspire, and empower, and does so in a wide variety of mediums and genres.

He loves performing absolutely everywhere. In addition to many of the world's great concert halls, he has performed in spaces such as Black Rock City’s deep playa, Moroccan dance clubs, Miami yoga classes, the summit of Montfort in the Swiss Alps, jazz clubs and shopping malls in Thailand, fire ceremonies and tea lounges in Guatemala, a Bavarian wedding, parks and marinas throughout Italy, the Museum of Non-Conformist Art in St. Petersburg, all over the San Francisco Bay Area in major sports stadiums, bars, clubs, parties, churches, schools, BART stations, sidewalks, and homeless shelters in addition to countless more living rooms and backyards across the world and all over the internet.

In October 2022, he releases his debut album of songs written and recorded during the pandemic, with styles ranging from classical to pop to funk, and touching on themes of family, hope, mental health, and nature.

Nick holds faculty positions at Stanford University, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Pre-College Division, and the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, and is a sought after guest educator, having taught recently at Yale, Juilliard, the National Orchestral Institute, Miami Music Festival, 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.

He is a proud alumnus of New Haven’s Neighborhood Music School, Northwestern University, and the New World Symphony.