The sounding of the bugle at the Wingham Anzac Day ceremonies this year brought a lot of admiration for the young bugler who was pitch perfect and didn’t miss a beat.
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The boy sounding the Last Post and the Rouse was Lincoln Harrell, a year seven student from Wingham High School.
Strictly speaking, Lincoln wasn’t sounding the bugle as he doesn’t own one. He did, however, sound the stirring pieces on his trumpet, played as you would play a bugle – with no keys.
Lincoln, who’s mother Stacey is the music teacher at Wingham High School, sounded the Last Post and Rouse at the school Anzac service in 2016. The ex-servicemen who were present were evidently impressed, as they asked him to perform at the Anzac services in Wingham in 2017.
Although many marvelled at the Lincoln’s poise at the main Anzac Day commemorations and the Tigers vs Sharks rugby league Anzac ceremony on May 1, Lincoln says that his performance at the Wingham Cemetery service was not as perfect.
“It was BAD. It was not good. That one didn’t go very well. I didn’t realise that there would be swarms of mosquitoes everywhere. I had them biting at my fingers while I was playing,” Lincoln said.
Lincoln has been playing the trumpet for eight years. His first teacher was Amanda Kav who, at the time, was the musical director of the Club Taree RSL Band. She taught him right from the basics, and says it was evident from the first he had talent.
“He was a quick learner,” Amanda said.
Lincoln did play for a while in the Club Taree RSL Band, and also played a couple of times with Sinfonia, but his busy schedule meant he couldn’t continue.
Now he has weekly lessons with Judy McComb of Alabaster Music School, plays soccer, does tae kwon do, and practises the trumpet in between.