Interviews with David McCarroll and Edward Jones

On February 28, Longwood Symphony Orchestra will perform its 3rd concert of the season with our wonderful Guest Conductor Edward Jones, and the 23 year old violinist David McCarroll, who is already on the international stage, but is also a student of Donald Weilerstein at New England Conservatory of Music.

Longwood Symphony plays at the intersection of the arts, medicine, and healing.

David and Ed have also come from a background where music and caring go hand in hand. Here are some thoughts they have shared with LSO:

Q: As you know, Longwood Symphony Orchestra's concert will be a collaboration with ALS Therapy Development Institute. Does the Longwood model affect your music or change your perspective in any way?

EJ: Longwood's model of presenting concerts to highlight medical causes is a laudable one. In terms of audience demographics, it's fascinating: half of the audience comes to support its colleagues in the medical community, and in the process hears wonderful music; the other half, I suspect, come to hear the music and in the process become educatino in the fight against disease. Symphony orchestras and other arts organizations should be central players in any community, and yet so frequently they are marginalized. Longwood has found a way of reaching out and bridgin disparate groups of people, and it does so very successfully. It's always a thrill and a responsibility to introduce new audiences to music, and this group is a great ambassador for the future of classical music.

DMc: This sense of the healing power of music is very personal for me. My parents have cared for children with AIDS since I was very young--in Romania, Uganda and South Africa-- but also in my home in California. They adopted and fostered several generations of children with AIDS with whom I grew up, some of whom are no longer with us. I began playing when I was four and quickly realized music was much more important to my family than just entertainment. I try to bring this sense of healing and transcending everyday problems to all performances, but it is especially meaningful to me to be playing with this very special group of peole and know that it will be benefiting ALS patients.

Q: Have you performed other concerts for medical needs or medical causes?

EJ: Many of my earliest musical experiences were playing for the pupils in my mother's school--a school for severely mentally handicapped children. I would play the trumpet and piano for them, and it was during these formative years that i really experienced the power of music-makiing to physically transform and heal. Children who were in constant pain and torment seemed to experience slight relief and even enjoyment from the music, and that is something I have tried to keep constantly in mind since. For many people, music can be--and should be--a truly life-changing event. Too often in our culture, music is seen as an elitis past-time with no real relevance to the world--as witnessed by the endless cutting of music education budgets: the work of the Longwood Symphony Orchestra proves this to be completely false.

D Mc: I've done a lot of performing in hospitals and healthcare settings and it is definitely a very different experience from performing in a concert hall. You really feel first hand how important music is and I think it's also the act of going to play for one person or a small group of people in need of music that sets this apart. I've also played concerts for the peace organization Fellowship of Reconciliation and Doctors without Borders, which I feel are important causes, especially with the many conflicts facing the world today.

Nobel Violin Chapter I: the Swedish Consulate in New York

Start with one unvarnished violin and a Sharpie pen and where can it take you?

In 2006, we had a violin signed by virtuosi of the sports world, the 2006 Red Sox, during a three hour rain delay in a game against the Yankees.

Then we had a violin signed by virtuosi of the musical world, including Joshua Bell, Itzhak Perlman, Maxim Vengerov, and Yo-Yo Ma.

This year we have asked the virtuosi in creativity and science: the Nobel Laureates, to sign a violin. This instrument will ultimately be auctioned to support the LSO's Healing Art of Music Program, a program that brings together the arts and sciences to heal tehe community through music.

This is the 1st chapter of the wonderful journey of the Nobel Violin: December 10, 2008.

Every year on December 10, the anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel, the Nobel Prizes are awarded in Stockholm and Oslo. In the US, Nobel laureates gather at the Swedish Consul General's home in New York City.

That is where our Administrative Assistant Madeleine Baverstam, caught up with ten Nobel laureates, who were surprised and amused to be asked to sign a violin before going upstairs for supper.

Little did we suspect that this was just the beginning of a fascinating journey!

Professors Eric Maskin, Economics 2007 and John Nash, Economics 1994














Professor Daniel Tsui , Physics 1998










Dr. James Watson, Medicine 1962

LSO plays at the Commonwealth Awards

Tuesday January 13, 2009 found LSO Artistic Director Jonathan McPhee and sixteen Longwood Symphony members in the Great Hall of Flags at the State House. Longwood Symphony performed there as part of the Massachusetts Cultural Council's 2009 Commonwealth Awards ceremony.

Presented every two years by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, this event brings together local leaders from the worlds of politics, arts, philanthropy and culture. This year's Commonwealth Award honorees included composer Gunther Schuller and Children's Museum CEO Lou Casagrande, and the Peabody Essex Museum.

Longwood Symphony Orchestra featured two of its youngest yet most talented musicians, Sherman Jia and Michael Barnett, both of whom are still students at Harvard Medical School. They performed two movements of Bach's Concerto for Violin and Oboe with the rest of the orchestra, to the delight of the audience.

Crossing the Corpus Callosum: Neuroscience, Healing and the Arts

Art and Science Healing in Harmony

By Michèle Stanners

What do Julie Andrews and Mozart have in common? And what links Hillary Clinton, Che Guevara, and Cameron Diaz? The former have absolute or perfect pitch; the latter are tone-deaf. How our brains differ to create these disparities was one of the subjects of “Crossing the Corpus Callosum,” a first of its kind symposium held on January 10^th at the Merck Research Laboratories-Boston. Over 200 guests from various disciplines in the medical professions gathered to “traverse the pathway that connects the right and left cerebral hemispheres” and explore the interconnected worlds of neuroscience, healing, and the arts. The event was designed and hosted by the Longwood Symphony Orchestra, the orchestra of medical professionals based in Harvard’s Longwood Medical Area.

This unique musical ensemble has bridged concert performance with community service in the Boston area for over twenty-five years. The members are predominantly health professionals, scientists, and students. Most of them will tell you that the most important instrument in their medical bag is not their stethoscope, reflex hammer, or tongue depressor. It’s their violin, oboe, or clarinet. And many of them will attest that their passion for music has made them better observers, healers, and practitioners.

Dr. Tom Sheldon, Chairman of Radiation Oncology at Concord Hospital, explained how errors of medical diagnosis can occur without keen assessment skills. “The doctors look but don’t see, listen but don’t hear, or touch, but don’t feel as well as they might. Nothing trains the senses better than the arts”. Countless hours depressing oboe keys and adjusting reeds sensitize his fingers, as well as enable him to better detect concealed lumps or tumors.

At Harvard Medical School, a popular course offered by Drs. Shahram Khoshbin and Joel Katz helps doctors see patients through a new lens. These mentors to many trainees at Brigham and Women’s Hospital recognize that art appreciation is inherently ambiguous and forces one to work with an incomplete data set. They teamed up with Curator Alexa Miller and others from the Davis Museum at Wellesley College to develop a curriculum based on Visual Thinking Strategies. By understanding the rudiments of art — line, form, shape, color, balance — and through observation exercises, students improve their visual literacy and formulate better diagnoses.

Dancer and President of the Brooklyn Parkinson Group Olie Westheimer described the similarities between the mechanics of ballet and struggles facing patients with Parkinson disease. Through a strategic collaboration, people living with Parkinson disease in Brooklyn, NY now enjoy weekly therapy sessions led by dancers from the famous Mark Morris Dance Group.

Certain stroke victims who have difficulty saying their name can still sing “Happy Birthday” perfectly, explained Gottfried Schlaug, M.D. Ph.D, Director of the Music and Neuroimaging Laboratory at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. This is usually the result of injury to the left side of the brain, which houses the language center, leaving the right side of the brain, which influences singing, intact. At the Center, Psyche Loui, Ph.D. and neuroscientist with a background in music discovered a process that employs musical note passages to recruit neurons on the functioning side of the brain to improve speech. The discovery helps stroke victims recover by singing.

Dr. Dennis Spencer, Harvey and Kate Cushing Professor of Neurosurgery at Yale Medical School told the audience that a human can create 6,000 facial expressions. He explored both the scientific and sentimental meanings of facial expressions, with reference to Harvey Cushing. This famous father of modern neurosurgery left behind a remarkable anthology of fifteen thousand patient photographs — moving, poignant and at times arresting — taken from 1906 to 1932 and collated with autopsy specimens and hospital records. The Yale Cushing Collection was stored and forgotten until the early 1990’s, when it was accidentally rediscovered by medical students in a Yale dormitory. In their current place of honor in the Yale Medical Library, the photographs represent concurrent achievements in both medical and art history.

“We are all ill-equipped for the journey of Alzheimer’s” acknowledged the last presenter, John Zeisel, PhD, President and co-founder of Hearthstone Alzheimer Care. While a string quartet of the LSO joined him onstage to perform carefully selected compositions reflecting the four phases of Alzheimer’s - anxiety, agitation, aggression, and apathy - projected on the screen behind him were paintings by people living with dementias, reminding the crowd of the life and creativity still within them. The process of letting go of a loved one with dementia requires embracing their new way of life and love and expression. “The ultimate gift”, he said simply “is the opportunity to turn life’s tragedy into something beautiful.”

The day’s closing remarks were delivered by Dr. Lisa Wong. She is the President of the Longwood Symphony Orchestra, a violinist, a Clinical Associate in Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and the real brain behind the symposium. “We recognize that the arts and sciences have somehow become disconnected in society,” she concluded. “Just as the brain recruits healthy neurons to restore speech through song, so we in the arts and sciences community must recruit each other to heal this rift.”

For more information on the symposium and presenters, go to www.longwoodsymphony.org.

Michèle Stanners is a Canadian Fellow at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University who is researching the role of the arts in foreign policy and nation branding.

Launching Longwood Symphony on Call

Longwood Symphony on Call: In addition to our orchestral concerts at Jordan Hall, we've added a new program, "Longwood Symphony on Call," which was inspired by conversations we had with Dr. Lex van der Ploeg and Dr. Reid Leonard at Merck Research Laboratories - Boston. MRL Boston has been a great supporter of our work. This year, they were particularly interested in helping us develop new ways to share music with our community. Thus, LSO Musicians on Call was born.

Each month, small groups of musicians from the orchestra will travel to clinics, assisted living facilities, hospitals, and hospices to play for patients who might not otherwise be able to hear our music. While we've been sending musicians to visit hospitals on an ad hoc basis for many years, the grant from Merck gives us the opportunity to create a much more organized, coordinated program that can touch many more lives.

In November, the program began with two performances at two of the Hearthstone Foundation's Alzheimer's assisted living facilities. Hearthstone runs eight facilities, four in Massachusetts, and four in New York. Each living center incorporates the arts into its work with residents. Last week, a string quartet of musicians performed at the Hearthstone in Marlborough. This week, a flute quartet traveled to Hearthstone at Heights Crossing, an assisted living facility in Brockton, Massachusetts for an afternoon of music.

Music for Alzheimer's: Longwood Symphony's December concert will be a collaboration with ARTZ: Artists for Alzheimer's. This program, which is incorporated into many aspects of the care of the residents, provides visual and musical arts opportunities and also conducts research to further the study of the positive effects of the arts on senile dementia. ARTZ's program director is the remarkable Sean Caulfield, who joined us in Brockton for the performance. His observations of the effect of our music on the patients were invaluable.

It was a poignant day for Dany, Peter, Marty and myself. As we played, each of us could not help thinking about our own close family members living with Alzheimer's. But it was also uplifting.

We performed music of Mozart and Haydn, followed by Broadway tunes and old favorites from the 1940s, inviting our friends to join in a sing-along. They sang music from their memories.

Sean observed residents who had lost their ability for coherent speech who were able to sing the correct words to the songs we played. Others clapped in rhythm or tapped their fingers, as if playing the piano again. Afterward, we met a resident who had once been a college professor, but who was now no longer able to express herself with the words that had been her life. When Sean asked her if she had enjoyed the music, she only smiled, with tears running down her face, and gave him a hug.

Once again, music transcended language, and minimized disease. The music not only healed the patients but healed us, the healers, as well.

On December 6, 2008, Longwood Symphony will perform Ralph Vaughan Williams' A Sea Symphony to support the work of ARTZ. Some of the residents from Hearthstone will travel to Boston to hear that performance.

Next steps: In December, Longwood Symphony's Musicians on Call will be very busy: we'll perform in four locations: an assisted living facility for patients with multiple sclerosis, Boston Medical Center, The Women's Lunch Place which is a safe haven for homeless women, and Childrens Hospital Boston.

As a doctor, I have found the most difficult moments with my patients and families are also the most rewarding and transforming. Each time I am brought to the edge of my emotions, on the verge of tears, I remember that this is why I became a doctor and continue to practice medicine after 25 years. It is a privilege to feel and share this depth and intensity of humanity with others.

Sunday's visit to Hearthstone brought us to that familiar edge. What a gift to be able to see the direct and profound impact of music on our audience and to remember that even when other aspects of the mind are lost, music remains.

Music and Healing for SMA

Joy, sorrow, tears, lamentation, laughter – to all these music gives voice, but in such a way that we are transported from the world of unrest to a world of peace, and see reality in a new way.
--Dr. Albert Schweitzer

Last year was the 25th anniversary season of the Longwood Symphony which we marked by bringing together multiple organizations with shared visions, and by introducing a new way of communicating our music and healing, a symposium series called Community Conversations. This year, our 26th season, focuses on music and healing for those affected by neurodegenerative disease. Midway through the year, our Community Conversation will be a symposium on the use of the arts as a means of healing.

The care of a family member with a neurodegenerative disease is complex. Beside the multiple doctor’s appointments and variety of therapies there are braces, wheelchairs, and so many other things to attend to. With children, one adds daycare, access, and education. And the list goes on.

Families of Spinal Muscular Atrophy chose to use their concert on Saturday not to raise funds as much as to raise awareness. Jim Gaudreau spoke simply and caringly about the nature of the disease, how it has affected his family, and his seven-year old daughter. Many in the audience said “I learned something tonight, and was moved.”

FSMA honored Dr. Laurie Glader, a special physician whose compassion, understanding, and ability to make things happen has smoothed the road for so many parents and families.

Dr. Glader, a pediatrician in the Complex Care department of Children’s Hospital Boston accepted graciously and spoke eloquently. Dr. Glader’s father, Dr. McCarthy, here in Boston for the American Academy of Pediatrics meeting, looked on proudly.

Creativity, Caring and Community. For me, the moment that is magical at every concert is when I feel and see the orchestra transform. The words, dedication, and passion of Jim Gaudreau as a caring father and that of Dr. Glader as his physician touches the musicians on stage as well as the audience. I see it on the faces of your youngest medical students and most experienced physicians alike. It is the recognition of how our music itself is healing.

Suddenly, even beyond the power of Brahms and pure beauty of the symphony itself, the music is an extension of the work we do day to day.

Perhaps it is captured best by the last person to bid us goodnight at the end of a moving evening. She said “You played the music like it is part of life—I heard and felt all of the emotions. I really got what you were trying to say.”