Yale University musicians on Friday will perform a special Halloween concern featuring Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain and other fitting compositions. What makes the event particularly noteworthy (if you’ll pardon the pun) is that the performers are practicing and aspiring physicians from the Yale Medical School.
The Yale Medical Symphony Orchestra, which presented its first concert about five years ago, is an ensemble and an environment in which faculty and medical students can interpret familiar repertoire and get to know one another.
In the video provided above, fourth-year medical student Adam Sang says, “Playing in an orchestra is an art. Medicine, a lot of it is thinking and technical and cognitive. And this was both a distraction as well as a form of enjoyment … Playing in an orchestra does help with medical school. … it is a good way to meet a lot of friends who are other classmates, friends from outside of the medical school class, and also a lot of physicians and mentors, who I aspire to be one day.”
Dr. Lynn Tanoue agrees, saying, “I’ve had several experiences where medical students who I’ve shared a stand with see me in the hospital attending in the medical intensive care unit, and I think it does give them a different window on what it’s like to be a grown-up doctor … and it also allows me to interact with them in a teacher-student relationship that’s very different, because we share this other experience.”
A Yale University news story published yesterday explains that “the YMSO was organized in 2007 by Dr. Lynn Tanoue, professor of medicine (pulmonary and critical care), after she had a conversation with Dr. Thomas P. Duffy, professor of hematology and director of the Program for Humanities in Medicine. Noting the success of the Longwood Symphony Orchestra in Boston, which is comprised of medical professionals in that community, Duffy mentioned to Tanoue that it would be a bonus to have such an orchestra of medical affiliates at Yale.”
Read the Yale University news story here. The Yale Medical Symphony Orchestra will perform at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, in the Mary S. Harkness Auditorium. The performance is free and open to the public.