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Missing Trumpet Player Gives Man His Big Break

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Dec 13, 2008 7:15 pm US/Mountain

Missing Trumpet Player Gives Man His Big Break

Written by Vicki Hildner, Special Projects Producer

  CBS4 and the Colorado Symphony Orchestra partnered together for the 6th annual television broadcast of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra's A Colorado Christmas, presented by DEX. The live broadcast aired from Boettcher Concert Hall on Saturday.

DENVER (CBS4) - Dan Kuehn and his brothers and sister all turned out to be musicians despite their parents.

"Mom and Dad couldn't carry a tune in a paper bag," he laughed. "We just had a piano in the house and everyone played the piano because it was there."

At the age of 12, Kuehn decided on the trumpet as his main instrument because, he now confesses, he fell in love with Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass.

After a couple stints playing on the East Coast and touring, Kuehn spent most of his career with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra because of one phone call he received from the CSO before he even graduated from college.

"They said we can't find our second trumpet player," he remembered.

Kuehn replaced the missing trumpeter for the summer season. He never left the orchestra.

Now he has added a new line to his resume -- trumpet teacher at Colorado State University. On the day CBS40 spent with him, he was coaching half a dozen brass players in his studio.

"I love it," Kuehn said. "I help make them successful in music and that may carry them through so many other exams, or interviews, or whatever life throws at them."

Kuehn also has studied for a civil engineering degree. He spends hours in his home woodworking shop. He has built custom cabinets for his house, unique tables, and now he's building a mountain house -- solo. He sees similarities between creating in the shop ... and on the stage.

"Building is the same as performing. You see something and you get a vision of how you can make it all work. It's all in the detail."

Kuehn knows that after 32 years with the symphony, some day he will be retiring. But he will never lose his love for work well done.

"There's going to be a new trumpet player in my place, but boy when you make a nice piece of furniture that's there forever."

CSO Information

Find more information about the CSO online at www.coloradosymphony.org.

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