For Adam Bhatia, the transition from shy “Star Wars”
enthusiast to award-winning trumpet player has been a long time in
the making. The graduating trumpet performance student unveiled the
fruits of his labors on June 7 at his senior recital, and played so
exuberantly that one could have easily forgotten that it was a
classical music performance. At one point, someone in the audience
yelled “Amen, brotha!” to which Bhatia quickly and
proudly acknowledged with a pointed index finger.
When Bhatia announced at the end of his program, “I have
one more. This is kind of fun,” audience members had no idea
what to expect, but once the familiar melody of “Amazing
Grace” began to ring freely from Bhatia’s trumpet, his
friends and family proceeded to scream and cheer wildly in the tiny
Jan Popper Theater.
At the end of the song, both the pianist and the trumpeter
seemed highly pleased with their performance, but Bhatia’s
mother, Linda, said such onstage confidence hadn’t always
come so easily to her son.
“He’s changed quite a bit,” she said earlier
that day while baking cookies at home for the recital. “If
you look at the way he performs now, he’s much more
comfortable performing, much more comfortable on stage, much more
relaxed. He actually seems to enjoy it.”
In high school, Bhatia’s nervousness often showed on
stage. He wouldn’t smile, and at the end of a performance, he
would bow quickly before exiting. But on Tuesday night, his
confidence was very apparent. At various points during the recital,
Bhatia went so far as to provide comedic relief. Right before
performing “Mars” by Denis Gougeon, Bhatia admitted
that he actually knew nothing about the piece. Knowing that he
needed to extend his recital to the hour mark, he had simply picked
the sheet music up off of his teacher’s desk a week and a
half earlier. While shuffling the many pieces of sheet music on two
music stands, he quipped that although the piece wasn’t very
long at all, there were “a lot of pages,” provoking a
laugh from the audience.
This newfound confidence was something that Bhatia learned from
his four years at UCLA under the tutelage of Professor Jens
Lindemann, as well as his many wins in trumpet competitions. This
year, Bhatia helped UCLA’s Trumpet Ensemble win its second
straight first-place victory in the National Trumpet Competition
after a string of personal wins in solo events. In 2004, Bhatia
captured third place in the International Trumpet Guild competition
and the Yamaha Young Performing Artist Award. Endorsed by Yamaha,
he recently performed for and represented the company at the
National Association of Music Merchants show in Anaheim. In
addition to these honors, Bhatia has played with famed trumpeter
Doc Severinsen and recorded a live concert with Lindemann in
Toronto for broadcast on CBC radio.
From birth, music has been a central part of Bhatia’s
life.
“When he was an infant, he was a premature baby,”
said Linda Bhatia. “He was a little fussy. And in probably
the first year of his life, the only thing that would calm him was
classical music. You could turn on the classical music and walk
with him or sway with him. He just always loved it.”
Growing up in Long Beach, Bhatia knew at an early age that he
wanted to come to UCLA, but it was a dream formed long before he
had ever picked up a trumpet. UCLA is a family affair for the
Bhatias: his father, from whom Bhatia gets his strong work ethic,
is a doctor and faculty member at the UCLA medical hospital, while
his younger sister is a first-year student studying flute.
Although he’ll be graduating later this week, Bhatia will
be coming back in the fall to begin his master’s studies.
He’d like to eventually go on to Juilliard, but his ultimate
dream is to become a professional studio musician for the Los
Angeles movie music industry.
“It’s a very tough scene to break into,”
Lindemann said. “But if there’s any student that I have
who I felt would be an amazing Los Angeles studio player, it would
be Adam. I have absolutely no doubt that when he finally leaves
school, he’s going to be one of the truly important players
in the Los Angeles studio scene.”
This studio dream was fomented by a course he took at UCLA,
Psychology of Film Music, in which he and his classmates learned
how the bike pedals in “E.T.” lined up with the beat of
the score composed by one-time UCLA student John Williams. Bhatia
met Williams, his idol, in October 2004 when he performed in a
concert paying tribute to the famous composer. It was the
fulfillment of one his longtime goals and a major event for Bhatia,
a “Star Wars” aficionado, although he likes to downplay
his love of the popular film series.
“I’m not a nerdy “˜Star Wars’ fan,”
Bhatia said defensively.
He was quick to note that he doesn’t attend conventions
and that it was already the fourth day “Revenge of the
Sith” had been out in theaters before he finally saw it.
Others, though, would disagree with Bhatia’s self-proclaimed
casual interest in the epic films.
“I actually saw him go to a “˜Star Wars’ movie
wearing a Storm Trooper mask,” Lindemann said.
“He’s a total “˜Star Wars’ geek.”