Bio

Deeply rooted in the legacy of Romanticism, the music of Russell Platt (b. 1965) is narrative-driven, formally dynamic, intellectually active, and frequently engages with works from other mediums. His “Symphony in Three Movements (For Clyfford Still)” (2019-20), premiered by JoAnn Falletta and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, is a response to four paintings by the legendary Abstract Expressionist artist held by Buffalo’s AKG Art Museum. “Mountain Interval (String Quartet)” (2014-16), premiered by the Borromeo String Quartet, is a seven-movement double tribute to Beethoven’s String Quartet in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 131, and several beloved poems by Robert Frost. “Trio by Night” (2018), commissioned by Premiere Commission and premiered by Vanderbilt University’s Blakemore Trio, is a paean to the work of three Getty photojournalists imprisoned by the Egyptian government.

Platt currently serves on the faculty of the Vanderbilt University Blair School of Music in Nashville. An alumnus of Oberlin College, the Curtis Institute of Music, St. Catharine’s College Cambridge, and the University of Minnesota, Platt’s principal teachers were Ned Rorem, Dominick Argento, Judith Lang Zaimont, Alexander Goehr, and Edward J. Miller. The recipient of several composer residencies at Yaddo, he has also had the privilege of working at the Civitella Ranieri Foundation and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. His music has been honored with both the Charles Ives Scholarship and Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Tennessee Arts Commission Individual Artist Fellowship (2023), a Copland House Fellowship, a McKnight Fellowship from the American Composers Forum, a Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship, and an ASCAP Young Composers Award.

His works for orchestra, chamber ensembles, and vocalists have also been performed by such distinguished ensembles and soloists as the Escher String Quartet, the Horszowski Trio, the New York Festival of Song, the Knights, the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra Ensembles, Locrian Chamber Players, Mirror Visions Ensemble, Brooklyn Art Song Society, American Modern Ensemble, the Wisconsin Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera tenor Paul Appleby, the flutist Molly Barth, the collaborative pianist Dylan Perez, and the bassoonists Peter Kolkay and George Sakakeeny. Recent performances include the world premières of “Madrigal” for alto flute and violin (at the New Year’s New Music concerts at Bargemusic), of “Sunday Variations” for solo bassoon (at the Harvard Musical Association), of his Robert Frost song “After Apple-Picking” (at Brooklyn Art Song Society), and the premiere of “Arizona Echoes,” a sinfonia for concert band, by Dr. Thomas Verrier and the Vanderbilt Wind Ensemble; a commission from the College Band Directors National Association, it will be repeated by the bands of the University of Florida, Florida State University, and the University of Texas at Arlington, among others.

Before joining the Vanderbilt faculty, Platt was a senior editor and critic for classical music at The New Yorker (2000-2018). He won the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for Music Criticism in 2010.