Tom Hesketh

Born March 3, 1957 in Meadville, Pennsylvania, Tom was raised in Edinboro.  His first musical memories were hearing 45s of early 60s vintage rock & roll played by a neighbor on a cheap fold-up record player.  Tom became “musically aware” when friend Rick Dasher introduced him to progressive rock and contemporary jazz.  Big influences: YES, King Crimson, Genesis, Gentle Giant, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Pat Metheny, Miles Davis

Tom first got involved with sound reinforcement when he agreed to put together and operate a small-scale sound system for coffeehouses in the North Halls dorms at Penn State.  Club gigs followed quickly, most notably with the Grateful Dead cover band “DOA”.

Tom’s mentors were Jim Thorn (Cartoon sound engineer), Paul Bertalan (roommate and very talented audio engineer) and childhood friend David Carlson.  David was one of the owners of CSS Systems, a sound reinforcement company in State College.  He now works at Electro-Voice and has designed loudspeaker systems that have been used by the Rolling Stones, among others.

Although Tom has an extremely keen ear, he never learned to play any musical instruments.  “When I was 6, my mother offered to have me take piano lessons.  Foolishly, I said no, and since about age 14 I’ve kicked myself ever since.  I fear that I don’t have the discipline to learn and the tolerance to be a bad player before I become competent.”

RRC was the first “serious” band Tom worked with.  “They were all very competent players, and we had very good equipment for the period.”  Tom was so committed to the band that he took out a loan at the Music Mart and bought a 1/3 octave equalizer, a Roland Space Echo, and an MXR Flanger/Doubler.  “I paid off the loan a month early!”

Says Hesketh, “What I enjoyed about RRC was, the music was really good, especially the originals.  The fans requested them as much as some of the covers, which is a very cool thing.  Each member of the band came from a different musical direction but was willing and able to cross genre lines to play pretty much anything, and play it very well.  I can’t think of too many bands whose play list included the Grateful Dead, Genesis, J. J. Cale and Billy Cobham!  The camaraderie was great, too”

After RRC broke up, Tom worked for a brief time in Pictures with Jamie, Roger and Ron, then began working as a studio engineer and produced or engineered several albums. However, Tom’s first love has always been live music, and he worked with many bands over the years in State College, most notably a “wonderful” 10+ year run as the sound technician for The Screaming Ducks.  He also worked as a freelance audio engineer and has mixed a number of national acts, including Ray Charles, Sonny Rollins, Meat Loaf, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Jerry Reed, and Tom Chapin.

In February of 1990, Tom became the Technical Services Coordinator at the Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State University.  Currently, he serves as the Events Manager for the Center, which involves overseeing the technical aspects of every event that occurs in Eisenhower and Schwab Auditoriums.  Tom also sits on the Board of Directors of the Nittany Valley Orchestra.

Tom currently lives in State College with his wife, Jennifer Dixon Hesketh – who has sung and played banjo in the Phyrst Phamly, the semi-legendary State College Saturday night sing-along band, for 20 years – and their three daughters: Molly (age 13, plays clarinet), Lauren (age 10, plays piano and flute), and Claire (age 3).