MUSIC runs in the veins of talented trumpet player Frank Marcollo, who has been playing in the local band, Hamilton Brass for over 50 years and has no plans of stopping anytime soon.  

With two musically talented parents, Mr Marcollo said it was never a question of whether he would play an instrument, but rather which instrument it would be.

“I started on piano and that didn’t work, then I tried to play violin and that worked even less,” he said.

“My mum played keyboard, piano, and church organ, and my dad was a violinist, and a pretty good one.

“My mum was putting pressure on … I had to play something.”

At the age of 10, after trying his hand at several instruments, Mr Marcollo picked up his first trumpet.

“My uncle played cornets and trumpets and he was in one of the Bendigo bands, I spotted a second-hand cornet which was a heap of scrap metal basically, but he checked it out for me and said, ‘yeah it’ll play’ and as soon as I blew it, I thought ‘yeah this is it’.”

From there Mr Marcollo learnt to play the trumpet from his uncle before joining his first band, and hasn’t looked back since, going on to play in various bands across Victoria.

Reflecting on his beginnings in Hamilton Brass, Mr Marcollo said he still remembered the day he was approached to play in the big band, which was only a few days after he moved to Hamilton in 1972.

“The secretary of the band somehow heard that I was in town and he turned up at my door, I think I had been at work about three days,” he said. 

“He knocked on the door and handed me one of these (a cornet) and said rehearsal’s tomorrow night.

“I still don’t know who dobbed me in.”

Since then, Mr Marcollo has played in Hamilton Brass, the Hamilton Orchestra, Trax, and has played at local ANZAC Day services for the past 40 years, funerals, and Remembrance Day services, and also teaches trumpet and trombone.

Last January marked Mr Marcollo’s 50th anniversary with Hamilton Brass, and the passionate musician said he had no intentions of retiring his trumpet while he was still capable of playing.

Mr Marcollo has passed on his love of music to his children and grandchildren, with his eldest son playing trumpet, French horn, and trombone; his younger son playing percussion and drums; and his grandson learning to play trumpet.

“My oldest son and I compete, louder and higher and all that,” he said.

“Their oldest son sent me an email just before Christmas with a video if him playing ‘We are the Champions’ on my old trumpet.

“When I gave it to him, I said, ‘if you keep playing, it’s yours forever, but if you stop playing, I want it back’, and that’s given him a push.”

Mr Marcollo has quite a number of trumpets, cornets, and flugel horns, however, he said he does not collect them, but simply “can't sell them”.

“If you play an instrument for any length of time, it actually becomes part of your body, and selling that is like asking which part of my arm you want,” he said.

“I feel attached to instruments, I've still got the first one I ever played … I bought it in June 1961.”

Mr Marcollo said anybody can learn an instrument regardless of their age or previous musical experience, and says his advice to anybody putting off learning one is - “what’s your excuse?”

“People say, ‘I wish I had’, but you still can,” he said.

“If you want help, I will help you and I will encourage you.

“The more you learn about something, the more you know there is to learn - that’s just life generally.

“What else would you want to do with your life?”