Ardmore boy, 9, bugles for veterans

On Memorial Day, Taps is played at ceremonies honoring those who gave their lives in service to our country. Some fifty-five hundred members of the non-profit Bugles Across America are called upon to perform the musical piece throughout the year. Included in that number is a third-grade student at The Shipley School in Bryn Mawr.

Aidan Peterson took some time out of his school day to talk with Newsworks Tonight Host Dave Heller about what it’s like to perform alongside musicians who are decades older.

The audition process to get into Bugles Across America was an odd one for Peterson, as it was over the phone rather than in-person. He recalls playing the 24 notes that make up Taps into the phone, then being asked to distance himself from the receiver before playing again. But the response was immediate, and the 9-year-old was accepted.

While Peterson’s contemporaries in Bugles Across America are much older, he is no stranger to playing outside of his age range. The boy plays with twelfth-graders in The Shipley School’s orchestra, and he has even formed a band with a group of twenty-somethings: The Midnight Bruises.

Just because he has an early start to the music game, doesn’t mean an early retirement has crossed his mind. When asked if he will still be playing music with Bugles Across America and his other projects when he grows older, Aidan’s answer is a resounding, “Yeah, until I’m, like, ninety.”