Musical talent certainly runs in the Cinnamond family of East Lismore.

Father Scott was a full-time musician in the Australian Army, later establishing the East Coast Academy of Music. And son Luka plays guitar in a band called The Tripps, which won the prestigious Battle of the Bands in Ballina. The band is made up of students from Trinity College Lismore and has an enthusiastic following.

Scott was born in the Hunter Valley.

“The family came out from Ireland in 1950 on the 10-pound fare and began life here in Melbourne before moving around the place. Dad was a fitter and turner by trade and met my mother in north Queensland. They moved to the Hunter Valley in the early 1960s,” he said.

Scott and his family moved to Lismore in 1994 and he completed a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Contemporary Music at Southern Cross University.

“I came out of the army and after that I went from Sydney to the Hunter Valley. For some time I made a living doing peripatetic teaching. But I went to university to get the piece of paper,” Mr Cinnamond.

After graduating, he established the East Coast Academy of Music. He has been teaching saxophone since.

Nowadays, Scott is playing Saxophone with the Ballina Concert Band.