Blending Medicine and Music in the Durham Medical Orchestra

The orchestra, featuring medical professionals from Duke and the local community, plays a free concert Dec. 15 focusing on climate change

A portion of an orchestra is shown performing on a stage
The Durham Medical Orchestra is led by conductor Verena Mösenbichler-Bryant and has grown to 94 members and includes medical professionals from throughout the Triangle area. Photo by Eric Monson

Tony Huang has been playing the violin since he was a kid growing up in Taiwan. Now a Professor of Medicine practicing Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Huang played it off and on throughout his years studying and training to be a physician.

Soon after he came to Duke for his fellowship 36 years ago, Huang’s son began to play the violin, too – which meant Huang suddenly lost access to his own instrument as his child learned how to make it sing. He didn’t have a reason to ask for it back.

Then Huang saw a flier in Duke University Hospital in 2010 boasting of a new orchestra for medical professionals. He dug out his old violin and auditioned – not knowing that every one of the 33 people who showed up for tryouts would be accepted.

“Playing in the orchestra actually forced me to practice for a purpose,” Huang said. “Otherwise, it is just random practice with no purpose.”

Nearly 15 years later, Huang is still a member of what is now the Durham Medical Orchestra. Led by conductor Verena Mösenbichler-Bryant, it has grown to 94 members and includes medical professionals from throughout the Triangle area, with about half based in Duke’s medical community. It continues to give purpose and meaning to members, particularly with themed concerts that aim to bring attention to larger issues in the world.

On Dec. 15, the Durham Medical Orchestra performs its free winter concert, “Orchestrating Change: A Concert for Climate Action,” in Baldwin Auditorium. The five works the orchestra will play are tied to nature, climate change and our impact on it. 

How to listen
Orchestrating Change: A Concert for Climate Action is Dec. 15 at Baldwin Auditorium. Free admission, donations accepted.
Pre-concert talk: 2:15-2:45 p.m. (livestream)
Concert: 3 p.m. (livestream)

A chance to turn off your brain

For Tingrui Zhao, a Medical Instructor in the Department of Medicine, playing the violin for the Durham Medical Orchestra has been a valuable part of his routine since he first joined in 2015.

“Orchestra is a wonderful way to really turn off my brain from work,” Zhao said.

An orchestra performs outdoors at a small baseball stadium
The Durham Medical Orchestra often performs in community events, such as this benefit for the Miracle League ballpark in downtown Durham in April 2023. Photo by Eric Monson

That’s a common refrain from members, according to Nick Bandarenko, a founding member and the president of the orchestra who is an Associate Professor of Pathology.

“It's self-sustaining,” said Bandarenko, who plays clarinet. “I get such a break mentally from work during those 2 1/2 hours (of weekly rehearsal). That's all that's on my mind.”

At the same time, Mösenbichler-Bryant is careful to establish ground rules that allow space for members to experience both the orchestra and their careers fully. If a medical professional is on call or has an emergency that forces them to miss a rehearsal, it’s excused.

In return, Mösenbichler-Bryant says members are fully dedicated to the music whenever they’re playing.

“The commitment, dedication and the eagerness to improve and perform at a really high level is just tremendous,” she said. “With this orchestra, you can feel the energy, you can feel that they’re so motivated on improving. Of course you get that with students, as well, but it’s different. In this orchestra, it feels like everyone is a music major in the ensemble.”

Playing with purpose

Chesney Ward was a music minor as an undergrad at Duke and thought her days of playing the violin in an ensemble were behind her when she began to pursue her physical therapist career in earnest.

After she discovered the Durham Medical Orchestra two years ago, she fell right back into the familiar rhythm she’d experienced throughout her life of a weekly rehearsal and biannual concerts.  

An orchestra plays outdoors as members wear sunglasses.
Chesney Ward, center in sunglasses, says playing a thematic concert helps her to remember the music's overaching message. Photo by Eric Monson

But what she wasn’t expecting was to find new meaning in the music she played through thematic concerts.

“I feel like as a musician you get so tied into if I'm playing like all the right notes and you’re really in the weeds of the music,” Ward said. “But remembering the overarching themes and what the music's trying to convey and the messaging – it's nice to have a group of pieces that are collectively trying to say one thing. 

“That’s really what art is. You can get so used to focusing on precision that when you step back to see the full scope and picture view on it all, it’s nice.”

In prior years, there have been medical-related performance themes, such as a concert on Alzheimer’s and dementia, or one relating to cancer.

“These concerts are really meaningful when we can tie together what the members are doing on a daily basis with their music making,” Mösenbichler-Bryant said.

That’s been the appeal from the start, according to Bandarenko.

“It took on a greater meaning than just a musical outlet,” he said. “To this day, we still see ourselves as using music as a way to reach and communicate with people in ways that information such as news or other media cannot do.”

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