In a recent review of one of his recordings Anthony Plog was referred to as "a Los Angeles-based trumpeter and composer." Not true. Despite his activity southwest of here, Plog - Tony to his friends - is based in Salt Lake City, something that harks back to his days as associate principal trumpet of the Utah Symphony.
A California native and UCLA graduate, Plog came here in 1974 following three years with the San Antonio Symphony. Then in 1976 he returned to L.A. to pursue a solo career, "because I already had a base there of sorts," he says. "At that time there weren't many trumpet soloists in the U.S. - even Gerry Schwarz in New York, although he had a few albums, had no real solo career - and I knew it would be at least five years, maybe longer, before I made it. But I still wanted to try."Try he did, and with such success that in addition to an increasing amount of free-lance work in and out of Southern California he decided he could handle the national and international aspects of his career as well from Utah.
"It was more intuitive than anything else," Plog says. "The past couple of years L.A. has become progressively noisier and more crowded - especially the freeways. I just decided Salt Lake was nicer and quieter. Also, housing was more affordable."
The house-hunting began in earnest during a visit here two years ago last April. "I was here for two or three days to see some friends in the orchestra and looked at a couple of houses but couldn't really find anything. Then a couple of days after I got back Nick (Utah Symphony trumpeter Nick Norton) called and said he had found the perfect house for me. So I flew up and looked at it and made an offer that night."
That more or less coincided with another important move in Plog's career. "About two years ago I decided no more free-lancing, that I would confine myself to playing either as a soloist or as a chamber musician. And of course composing."
That, Plog confesses, was not an easy decision, given the lucrative nature of most studio jobs. "It was sort of a sink-or-swim kind of thing, especially when I got those first studio calls after I had made up my mind. Up till then I had made about 60 percent of my income from free-lancing."
At various times that has included stints with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the Pacific Symphony Orchestra. As one of its founding members, Plog still plays with the Fine Arts Brass Quintet, based in Los Angeles, as well as several weeks a year with the St. Louis Brass Quintet and Summit Brass. In fact, except for a guest shot with the Utah Symphony Chamber Orchestra last winter (in the Second Brandenburg Concerto) Plog's performing career still takes him outside Utah, including concerts in Europe, Australia and Japan.
"But because of that, and because it's quieter, I'm able to get more composing done here." To date, Plog says, his catalog numbers around 30 compositions, but of those around seven or eight were turned out in the last year alone. "Most of it's brass music or wind ensemble pieces, plus a few concerted pieces. This year I hope to get started on a symphony."
On the recording front, he and Norton just completed an album of lesser-known baroque pieces for multiple trumpets (Summit DCD-108). Recorded last August in a church in Pacific Palisades, it features soloistically vital, often brilliant performances of such things as Zelenka fanfares, Philidor canons and Pezel sonatinas (the last on clarino trumpets) together with lesser music from the likes of Johann Melchior Molter and Johann Jakob Loewe von Eisenach. Were that not enough, the two friends also doubled as co-producers.
"We also run together," Plog comments, "as well as swim and hike." Besides Norton, his running coach, Plog says, is Utah Symphony bass player Claudia Christiansen. "They're both terrific athletes - she's actually set records in some local races."
Otherwise, the galloping trumpeter says, "hopefully this year I'll have more time in Salt Lake, not only to compose but to enjoy the house - it's the first I've ever owned - and the city a bit more. It's really something to come back every time and see the dramatic changes, things like plants growing and the snow. It keeps me in touch with the cycle of life, as opposed to L.A., where the weather is pretty much the same.
"It's such a beautiful state."