Nick Norton: The inspirational, huge-hearted former Principal Trumpet of the Utah Symphony

Anthony Plog on Music

In his thirty-eight years with the Utah Symphony, Nick Norton experienced all aspects of what it means to be an orchestral trumpet player. He began his career with the orchestra as second trumpet and after nine years auditioned for, and won, the newly vacated position of principal trumpet. Towards the end of his tenure with the orchestra, he moved to become a sort of roving section player. But in addition to his life as a trumpet player, Nick has also had a very full life outside of music which, among other things, involved preserving City Creek Canyon in Salt Lake City in its pristine state for the future. He is not only a good friend of mine, he is also a hero to me, a person with great integrity and honor (and also a great sense of humor... I can't recall a phone conversation with him where I didn't laugh.)
We begin our conversation with Nick talking about his audition for second trumpet in the Utah Symphony, his experience in that position, and then his audition for principal trumpet nine years later. Nick did about nine mock auditions for friends beforehand, and he speaks about how his poor showing in his last mock audition, and what he learned from it, helped him win the position with the Utah Symphony. Since he has played all positions in the trumpet section, I asked him about the different roles or goals of each trumpet seat in the orchestra and how to work well with a section. Nick also played principal trumpet with the Malmö Symphony in Sweden for a short period of time, so we talk about the differences in brass playing between an American and Swedish orchestra.

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