Saturday, October 11, 2008

Music and the mind--a season begins




Creativity, Caring and Community


Tonight we will open our 26th concert season at NEC's Jordan Hall in a concert to benefit the Families of Spinal Muscular Atrophy. This group is particularly special to me because two of the children in my pediatric practice are afflicted with the disease.

The entire season focuses on the way we use Music to Heal. This letter is my opening welcome to the audience.

Dear Friends:

Welcome to the 26th season of Longwood Symphony Orchestra. This season we focus on neurologic diseases and consider Music's role in healing.

Music has had a profound effect on all of LSO's healer-musicians. As music students, we were introduced to the magic of Music and challenged by its complex set of multi-sensory, multi-disciplinary problems. Music required the coordination of all the senses--auditory, visual, and motor--to make the notes on a page come alive. In a symphonic orchestra like the LSO, powerful and profound emotions are expressed, passion is revealed. The whole is greater than the sume of the individual parts, providing musicians and audience with emotional strength, a sense of identity, and a sense of order.

Medicine, like music, is a series of complex multi-sensory, multi-disciplinary challenges. We are inspired and touched by the science and the humanity of every patient, and work together as an ensemble in the classroom, in the laboratory, and on the wards. Medicine requires and provides the same life-sustaining inspiration, clarity, emotional strength, and sense of identity as Music.

Music is best when it is shared, performed, and given voice. Our Healing Art of Music program grew out of our passion for community and passion for music. Our music truly makes a difference and enables medical charities to touch the lives of thousands of patients and families.

I would like to thank all of you for being a part of the Longwood Symphony Orchestra family and sharing in our dual passion for, and mission of, Healing our Community through Music and Medicine. I look forward to seeing you throughout this exciting season.

Lisa M. Wong, M.D.

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