It’s a source of stress relief, a way to express themselves, the one commitment retained when all others are dropped from a demanding medical school schedule. That’s how medical students Jenny Xia (Class of 2019), Kathy Li (Class of 2018), Peter Hung (Class of 2018) and Ramya Tadipatri (Class of 2017) describe their participation in the Music and Medicine Orchestra at Weill Cornell Medicine.
“I never felt like I was being pulled in different directions, but rather that the orchestra was helping me through my medical education,” said Tadipatri. “Even when I was tired, I would drag myself to rehearsal, and about ten minutes in I would feel great and be so glad that I came,” Xia said.
Last month the four violinists joined more than 60 other musicians onstage at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater at the Juilliard School to perform works by Brahms and Beethoven to an enthusiastic audience. Primarily composed of medical and graduate students, trainees, and faculty at Weill Cornell Medicine, the Rockefeller University and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, the Music and Medicine Orchestra also welcomes musicians from other medical institutions in the city, including the NYU School of Medicine and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Musicians from the Juilliard School and other music schools fill the seats for less commonly played instruments, such as the French horn.
Rehearsing in disparate conference rooms across the medical school campus, the orchestra meets half a dozen times before the dress rehearsal for the biannual performance. It is a testament to their lifelong commitment to music—with lessons often beginning in early childhood—that the busy participants can perform so beautifully on this abbreviated schedule.
The orchestra is part of a larger entity, the Weill Cornell Medicine Music and Medicine Initiative, which was spearheaded by Drs. David Shapiro and Richard Kogan to allow medical students to continue their musical lives. A generous gift from the Block Family Foundation helps support the initiative.
The students expressed their appreciation for the efforts of Dr. Shapiro, Dr. Kogan, Nancy Amigron (program manager) and many others in providing them the opportunity to perform. They know how expensive it is to put together the productions and that it takes substantial fundraising and community support.
Participating students have the opportunity to play at a wide range of medical school functions including galas, receptions, fundraisers, memorials and Commencement, a special favorite for its location at Carnegie Hall. “We’re lucky that the administration appreciates the initiative and actively seeks out student musicians to perform at different functions,” Li said.
The synergy between music and medicine is another important part of the initiative. Dr. Kogan, vice chair and artistic director, is both a WCM psychiatrist and a professional pianist. In introducing each piece at concerts, he endeavors to make the connection between the music and how it relates to mental illness or physical illness, often suffered by the composer.
For the students, music will accompany them through each new chapter of their lives. Tadipatri just matched to a neurology residency program in Arizona, where she hopes to be able to join a community orchestra or something similar.
“I’m probably going to be in an orchestra for the rest of my life,” added Xia, her companions nodding in agreement. “Music matters to us,” said Hung.
Ramya Tadipatri (left) and Jenny Xia (right) backstage at Spring Music and Medicine Concert.
Kathy Li (left) performs at Spring Music and Medicine Concert.
Peter Hung (far left) and Jenny Xia (far right) with medical school friends.