A Lose-Win Situation

| Jul 7, 2014 |

For many years Nick Norton was the principal trumpet of the Utah Symphony. Before that he was second trumpet with the same orchestra. Recently he stepped down from principal to play in the section so that he could have more time and freedom to enjoy life. His career with the Utah Symphony has been special, and he is revered by his colleagues. But Nick, like everybody else in life, has also had his share of failures.  And one of those failures led to unexpected consequences.

When Nick was a student he auditioned as a doctoral candidate for Vincent Cichowitz at Northwestern University. Cichowitz was in his heyday as a teacher at that time, and was probably the most sought-after professor in the United States. Unfortunately Nick had a bad day and did not pass his audition—setback number one. So he decided to try for the University of Southern California and Tom Stevens, who at that time was principal trumpet with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, a solo recording artist, and also a great teacher. Nick was accepted and all was well with the world except… shortly before Nick was due to begin at USC, Tom quit—setback number two. I had recently joined the faculty, so by default Nick ended up being my student.

Not only did we have a good teacher/student relationship, but our friendship developed into one of the strongest and most enduring friendships of my life. So when I made the decision in 1989 to burn my bridges and stop freelancing in Los Angeles in order to pursue the possibility of a solo career full-time (ever the idealist), I moved from Los Angeles back to Salt Lake City, where I had once played with the Utah Symphony. Nick had joined the orchestra, and he and his wife Claudia were such close friends of mine that I figured that if I was going to radically change my life that would be a good place to start.

Within a year of moving to Salt Lake City, I met my wife Cathy on a blind date.  We became engaged, moved to Sweden where I was hired to play with the Malmo Symphony, got married in Sweden, moved to Italy for a short time, and since 1993 have been in Freiburg, Germany. Our daughter Kelsey was born in1993, and our son Jason was born two years later.

I guess we never know what the outcome of any success or failure will be. Although I would never wish anybody bad luck on an audition, on behalf of my wife and children I sure am glad that Nick had a bad day so many years ago at Northwestern.