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Australian Doctors’ Orchestra: mixing music and medicine
Author(s) -
Fraser Catherine
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2003.tb05725.x
Subject(s) - citation , library science , art , psychology , visual arts , computer science
The Medical Journal of Australia ISSN: 0025-729X 1/15 December 2003 179 11/12 633-636 © The M ed i ca l Jo u rna l o f Au s t ra l i a 2 003 www.mja.com.au Medical Maestros IN THE PREGNANT PAUSE between when the conductor bows to the audience, and then turns, raising his baton, to face more than 100 musicians with their instruments poised, it can feel as if time has stopped. The anticipation of a whole concert of magical music to follow, the culmination of much concentrated work, gives way to relief mixed with excitement as the sound that follows is full and impressive. The surprise is that this talented troupe are all doctors. Where else would you find such a large group of doctors from all fields of medicine coming together every year from all corners of Australia, to focus intensely on the same thing for 3 days — not only playing for free, but actually paying to be there? These doctors have more than medicine in common — they share a love of music. The combination of music and medicine is nothing new. There are prominent examples dating back many centuries. Thomas Campion (1567–1620), English poet and musician, studied both law and medicine and worked as a doctor in London from 1606.1 The French composer Hector Berlioz (1803–1869) was originally educated in medicine,1 while Russian composer Alexander Borodin (1833–1887) studied medicine and helped found a medical school for women in 1872.1 Musicologist Albert Schweitzer (1875– 1965) studied medicine in Strasbourg and worked as a medical missionary, returning regularly to Europe to give organ recitals to fund his hospital in Africa.1 Fritz Kreisler (1875–1962), violinist and composer, withdrew from music briefly to study medicine and to work as a medical officer in the Austrian army before returning to music fully in 1899.1 Flautist Jean-Pierre Rampal (1922–2000) left medical school to pursue his musical career,1 and conductor Zubin Mehta (1936) was another to abandon his medical studies, when he left India to pursue his musical studies.