Ripon College Days

Tom Hanlon [Click to enlarge]

When planning my visit to interview classical cellist senior Tom Hanlon, I envisioned a few scenarios-entering his room to the chorus of strings pouring out a whimsical Brahms piece, or maybe a mournful movement from Beethoven featuring woodwinds. Or maybe, I thought, in his time away from playing the cello, he enjoys something a little more rebellious, like a jazz standard featuring a bass, since he must have a penchant for instruments in the lower register.

The last thing I expected was to turn the corner to West Scott and hear Led Zepplin's aggressive riffs as I turned the corner to meet Hanlon in his room. I knocked loudly on the door, and he appeared, inviting me into his room. Immediately I notice the Led Zepplin poster that hangs directly above his desk, and so, above his computer, the source of the musical mayhem.

His love affair with music shines through as he turns down the music for the interview rather than turning it off. And so, I asked him the obvious-how a classically-trained cellist can enjoy the flamboyant styling of Zepplin.

"I love Led Zepplin. They're breadth. How they pull everything off. They incorporate classical styles without being classical," he answers. "And how they think about their music...If I'm in a particularly music geeky moment, I can pick it apart and say 'Ooo, that's cool' or 'That's really neat.'"

I ask him to elaborate on this "music geeky" concept. He explains, "It's dangerous when my friends and I get together. We'll listen to Tool and [someone will say] 'Woah, they played that part in 12/5. What the hell?'"

Hanlon began his classical career at the age of three, when his parents decided it was time for him to get involved in the Arts. "When I was a kid, my parents wanted me to play an instrument that was not a piano, which would be too big, and they figured if I took the violin I would get teased and probably quit. [They thought] the cello was big enough and I'd stick with it and probably enjoy it. And what do you know, they were right."

While his parents may have selected the cello for Hanlon, it was his own decision to continue his relationship with the instrument, and continue to develop as a musician. His main attraction to the cello, he says, is the tone it produces.

"[I enjoy] the sound of the cello and the expressive nature it has. It cannot be produced anywhere. It's been said that the cello is the closest approximation to the human voice that you can produce with an instrument," he says.

Hanlon notes that his first concert was at Chicago's Lyric Opera House, where his family established a tradition of performing on stage. "My brothers were all extras in at least one," he says. "My middle brother actually sang in Carmen."

Now Hanlon is a regular at Ripon College concerts, ("I go to every single one," he says) and performs in a great deal of them himself.

But the concert stage is not the only place to experience music. He says, "A friend and I were having a beer, and [he] blew into the bottle and heard the chord and [yells] 'Tri-tone!' And it's like, 'Oh my God, I can't believe you just said that.'"

Article Tools