Music & Medicine: The Longwood Chorus' Fall Concert is tonight. Join us online!
Every Tuesday evening, I have the joy of leading rehearsals of The Longwood Chorus, a wonderful ensemble of 100+ members of Boston’s vibrant medical, health, and science community. Tonight is our Fall concert!
The show is sold out but you can still watch online at 7:30pm ET!
Here’s the link to the Livestream and the concert program…
About my journey in music and medicine.
Before I went to medical school, I thought I might someday become an ear, nose, and throat doctor—specifically a laryngologist specializing in voice disorders and voice injuries. The idea was to combine my passions for choral music and singing with medicine. It turned out that ENT was not the right field for me. Among other things, while the operating room was an amazing place to learn (some of my best memories from medical school were in the OR), it just wasn’t where I saw myself in the long run. On the other hand, emergency medicine ended up being a perfect fit for a number of reasons. One of them is that the schedule (while intense) is fairly flexible, allowing me to do things like run the music side of an amazing organization like the Longwood Chorus. Working with this ensemble is truly the culmination of two of my major life interests.
You should sing! (Perhaps with us!)
More importantly, there’s a lot of research showing that singing has benefits. I always say that there’s a chorus for everyone. Yes, you! No matter how good or bad you think you are at singing, there’s a choral group just right for your level. And if you’re a healthcare or science student or professional in Boston, The Longwood Chorus might be yours! Here’s the audition link for our spring cycle, if that’s you: Sign up now! https://www.longwoodchorus.org/audition
Have a great weekend, everyone!
Yours,
Jeremy
Are you a musician in the sciences or medical fields? Tell us about what you do in the Comments!
I have sung in choirs since I was eight years old. As someone born with lower limb dysplasias, it was the first time I felt I truly belonged and even excelled. I currently sing in my church choir. Past community choirs include the Okinawa Choral Society, when my father and then my husband were stationed in Japan, and the California Philharmonic Chorale in Los Angeles. I'm sad to live across the country so I cannot audition for your choir.
I have an MPH in health promotion and education. I thought I might work for the Los Angeles Public Health Department after completing my degree and internship, instead of going back to teach high school health and science. However, LAPHD didn't pay health educators enough to support my family. I did use my skills as a teacher-advisor for LAUSD Health Education Programs for a few years. I'm retired now.
Fantastic initiative! The pivot from thinking ENT/voice disorders was the path to combining music and medicine, to realizing ER offers better schedule flexiblity for leading a chorus is a really pratical insight. I worked with healthcare teams that struggled with work-life integration and having built-in outlets like this makes a huge difference. Also, 100+ members from Bostons medical community is pretty impressive for maintaining that level of organizational commitment.