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Photo by
Jonah Light
Jens Lindemann with Adam Bhatia
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Campus buglers heed the call to play 'Taps'
BY CYNTHIA LEE
UCLA Today Staff
Whenever Jens Lindemann hears “Taps,” its haunting melody,
crystallized in only 24 notes, has the power to move him.
So when the UCLA visiting music professor and international trumpet
soloist heard of frustrated families of veterans being unable to find
buglers to play “Taps” at the funerals of loved ones, he was
appalled. “I’m not from a military family. I have no military
history. But as a performing artist, I find it insulting that there’s
no live body around to do this. Is this the best we can do for veterans
and their families?”
In the past, buglers were provided by the military. But in 2000, legislation
was passed to allow for “Taps” to be played on a CD because
of the scarcity of horn players. There are even fake bugles, Lindemann
said disgustedly, that have a recording of “Taps” in their
tips so that anyone can “play” one.
That motivated Tom Day, a former military trumpeter, to form “Bugles
Across America,” a Chicago-based nonprofit organization of 2,050
volunteer horn players, men and women, willing to play “Taps”
at veterans’ funerals. After talking to his 10 trumpet students
at UCLA about volunteering, Lindemann and his corps of Bruins joined Day’s
group. To support the UCLA contingent, Yamaha Corporation of America is
donating a specially engraved trumpet to be used for the funerals.
While the UCLA buglers wait for their first call-up, Lindemann plans
to ask other horn players in the UCLA Marching Band and at other universities
to volunteer.
Said Adam Bhatia, a third-year trumpet performance major at UCLA: “I
consider it a great honor to be among the many trumpeters who have responded
to this wonderful cause. Veterans have put their lives on the line and
need to be honored with a military funeral.”
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