Writing for Van magazine, J.R. Patterson explores a thriving corner of amateur music-making: orchestras of medical professionals. “The overlay of music and medicine,” he writes, can be seen in various ancient and traditional cultures’ use of music as a curative, and, in our time, in the worldwide phenomenon of healthcare providers who studied music in youth and continue to play as an “antipode to the stress and pressure” of their profession.
“Doctors deal with a lot of emotions every day, with the roller coaster of life and death, disease and cure, [which] creates an atmosphere where a refuge is needed,” says the Portuguese psychiatrist/conductor Sebastião Martins. “We can internalize it, or we can channel it into an art. Music is a very accessible outlet, and that’s probably why there are more medical orchestras than, say, for lawyers or engineers.”
Healing Invisibly
(via http://artsjournal.com)
While Patterson’s article focuses on European physicians’ orchestras, there’s a fine example closer to home: The VCU Health Orchestra, composed of teachers, students and practitioners at Virginia Commonwealth University’s medical school and healthcare system. The orchestra was founded in 2017, and a wind ensemble was organized in 2023.
To find out more about VCU’s medical musicians, go here: http://www.vcuhealth.org/our-story/who-we-are/vcu-health-orchestra
Letter V 