I recently caught up with talented trumpeter, artisan baker, and family man Travis Peterson while he was visiting his family in Minnesota:

On April 26th, 2020, you appeared with three fellow Utah Symphony trumpeters on the CBS show Sunday Morning. Tell us about this experience! It kind of blew me away.

Yeah, it kind of blew all four of us away! We were very honored to be a part of that, just because it’s such a historical show at this point. Wynton Marsalis typically plays that opening. Doc Severinsen played it before him. So just to have the opportunity to be showcased on there was pretty awesome. Utah Symphony trumpeter Jeff Luke arranged it for four trumpets and we each recorded it individually from our homes. My wife Andrea edited and submitted it to them and they said, “we’re going to use it”. We were like, “sweet, that’s amazing”! It was pretty neat to have 15 seconds of fame, but on top of that I sort of organized the Beethoven Fifth video, and I’m also on the task force for the symphony now. Well, I was – even though we’re keeping it going now that we’re furloughed. We did the “Fanfare for the Common Man” video for the essential workers and the 80th Birthday Celebration Hall of Fame, and then the August Read Thomas piece – I was loosely involved with that. Utah Symphony violinist David Porter took most of the lead on that, then Utah Symphony Principal keyboardist Jason Hardink did the Dai Fujikura piece that was just premiered on May 30th .

(scroll to the bottom of the interview for links to all of the videos mentioned above)

I was in that. I loved doing that. It was fun.

I’m enjoying it, you know, with the absence of being able to be on stage with all of my colleagues. It’s been nice to sort of help organize these projects because it gives me something to do, but it also gives me an opportunity to stay in touch with you all and, you know, put these together and communicate. I feel like I’m doing something.

You’re doing a lot. We applaud you!

I think it’s great. I’m happy that everyone is so eager and willing to be involved with these projects because it is very different from what we normally do. Sitting at home and just recording your one part, then submitting it and then it all of a sudden becomes this pretty amazing end product. It’s neat. It has definitely opened my eyes to stuff that I never even thought I would ever do or try to do but I’ve enjoyed it, for sure.

I know from personal experience that you are a super chef and baker. Did you acquire these skills from growing up on a farm? How important are fresh farm ingredients in your cooking?

I don’t know if I’d say I’m a super chef and baker, but I enjoy doing it. I’m happy doing it and it sort of distracts me from stress. Growing upon a farm definitely made me appreciate food more than if I had grown up in a city because my mom liked to bake a lot. She’s a really good cook herself. I just kind of fell in love with sweet things and eating desserts and all kinds of different foods. I think that as an adult it developed into me enjoying food a lot, regardless of what it is. I think that farm fresh stuff (eggs, high-quality butter, etc.), especially for baking, from what I’ve heard and from what I’ve read, if you are, say, baking a cake, you can’t really taste the difference. America’s Test Kitchen did a side-by-side test using farm fresh eggs, and they said it’s best to use farm fresh ingredients if you’re making just plain eggs or a simple dish, rather than something where it’s going to get masked or disguised among all the sugar and other ingredients. Sometimes when I get on a baking kick and I’m baking all kinds of stuff it can get expensive. I mean, butter is not the cheapest thing, so I just try to find whatever is cheapest and just use that, if that makes sense.

Ah, the secret’s out.

Yeah, exactly!

I notice your Facebook photo shows you holding a book on how to make Lutefisk. Have you ever made it?

I’ve never made Lutefisk. Actually, I’ve never even tried it. It’s like this folklore sort of infamous-type food that exists here in Minnesota. I’ve had pickled herring. I mean that’s doable. I’d probably try it if somebody gave me some, just to say I’ve tried it.

How has the pandemic affected you personally? I understand that your wife has been working in another city for part of this year? I know you two are very close. How have you been able to cross that hurdle?

Well, the pandemic has obviously been difficult for everybody, navigating through not working and figuring out what life is supposed to be, but Andrea and I have actually been able to spend more time with each other than we normally would have. Right when the pandemic started happening and stuff was going to shut down in mid-March, I was actually on the east coast. I was playing a couple of weeks with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and that got canceled, so I just went to New York and spent a week and a half with Andrea then I came back, and she was able to get out to Salt Lake City for four weeks. We were just self-isolating just like everyone else was anyway. She went back to New York to deal with some business stuff there for the last couple of weeks. I will be able to meet up with her in New York for a week. Andrea flew and everyone was wearing masks and there was a lot of space on the planes so she felt quite safe.

Any future plans that you would like to divulge for the next few months? A teaser?

The task force – we have a meeting on Tuesday of this week to sort of reorganize since we’ve been furloughed so we just need to touch base and sort of spit-ball ideas and come up with new things. I think we’re all sort of worn out. There’s a possibility of a new piece happening again, which is exciting. There’s also a possibility of a brass feature for the Fourth of July (I haven’t even talked to the task force about this yet). These are sort of in the pipes but not official yet. We need to sort of figure out repertoire in organizing stuff and talk about what will make it creative.

Anything you want to add?

Just that I miss performing with all of my colleagues and I very much look forward to the day when we all get back on stage to play the first rehearsal with the full orchestra.

It’s going to be emotional.

Yeah, it will be emotional, I think there will be electricity, lots of adrenaline. I think it will be an experience that we’ll all remember for sure.

Well, we all look forward to that. Thanks so much for this interview. It looks so beautiful there in Minnesota!

Yeah, it’s in the middle of nowhere! I love it!

-Lynn Rosen

 

-Watch the Utah Symphony’s trumpet section perform on CBS’s Sunday Morning here

-Watch the Utah Symphony perform the finale from Beethoven’s 5th Symphony individually from their homes here

-Watch the Utah Symphony brass and percussion sections perform Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man” as a tribute to essential workers here

-Watch the Utah Symphony’s 80th Anniversary celebration here

-Watch the Utah Symphony’s world premiere of Augusta Read Thomas’ “Fanfare of Hope and Solidarity” here

-Watch the Utah Symphony’s world premiere of Dai Fujikura’s “Longing From Afar” here

-Read more about Travis Peterson here