Bridging the Atlantic: Artful Innovations
in Cancer Care
Longwood Symphony Orchestra's Healing Art of Music Program
Tour to London, June 21-29, 2008
Introduction
The Longwood Symphony Orchestra was established in 1982 by members of the Harvard Medical School community. The hybrid mission of the LSO is to perform works of musical diversity and artistic excellence while supporting health-related nonprofit organizations.
In this way, the LSO utilizes music as a healing force to bring the community together. Thousands of people have benefited each year from LSO performances through its Healing Art of Music Program. Today, the orchestra is 120 members strong and ranks musically among the top community orchestras in Greater Boston.
Through four season concert performances in New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall and a free open-air concert every summer at the Hatch Memorial Shell on the Charles River Esplanade, the Longwood Symphony Orchestra is able to perform for more than 10,000 people each year.
The LSO is composed of musicians who play at the highest level while dedicating themselves to community service through music. All orchestra members are artists, scientists and humanists who live and work in the greater Boston area. Over eighty percent of LSO musicians work in the health sciences.
Through its award-winning Healing Art of Music Program, the LSO has guided medical charities in improving infrastructure and building organizational capacity. To date, the LSO has collaborated with over 26 nonprofit medical organizations, and has helped raise over $750,000 for them.
In June 2007, the Longwood Symphony Orchestra received the prestigious MetLife Excellence in Community Engagement Award from the American Symphony Orchestra League (now the League of American Orchestras). The orchestra has been reviewed and profiled by the Boston Globe, the Wall Street Journal, and SYMPHONY Magazine.
This year, the Longwood Symphony has expanded its Healing Art of Music Program to include medical symposia hosted by Boston’s major medical centers. These “Community Conversations” focus on major public health topics including AIDS, Global Health, and statewide Community Health Centers.
The first of these "Community Conversations" took place at Boston University on World AIDS Day, December 1, 2007. This symposium brought together for the first time the students and faculties of the BU Fine Arts College, School of Medicine, and the School of Public Health. The event culminated in an LSO concert at Jordan Hall benefiting three organizations – one representing world health initiatives, one backing artists devoting their work to AIDS, and one supporting clinicians caring for patients with AIDS.
International Humanitarian Tour
In its next phase of growth, the Longwood Symphony Orchestra will embark on a ground-breaking concert tour to share its unique Healing Art of Music Program with musical and medical colleagues on the international stage.
On June 21, 2008, the Longwood Symphony Orchestra will travel to London to perform and showcase its musician/physicians in a symposium, “Bridging the Atlantic: Artful Innovations in Cancer Care.” Many on the Longwood Symphony’s roster of musicians are also leaders in the fields of cancer research, therapy, and care. These include:
- Dr. Leonard Zon, Howard Hughes Investigator and Professor of Medicine at Children's Hospital Boston. He has been principal trumpet of the LSO for 25 years.
- Dr. Mark Gebhardt, Chief of Orthopedics, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Ilfeld Professor of Orthopedics, Harvard Medical School. He is the principal clarinetist of the orchestra.
- Ms. Nancy Chane, R.N., Director, Partners Healthcare Transitions Program and cellist in the orchestra.
- Dr. Daniela Krause, Clinical Pathologist at Massachusetts General Hospital specializing in targeted therapies for lymphoma, a U.K. citizen living and working in Boston. She is a flutist in the Longwood Symphony Orchestra.
These LSO musician-speakers will be joined by experts in the field in London from St. Bartholomew’s Hospital (Dr. John Gribben and Dr. Ama Rohatiner) and Mr. Bob Champion, a cancer survivor who has devoted his life to cancer care.
The long-term goal of the Longwood Symphony Orchestra is to develop an international model of its Healing Art of Music Program that will ultimately facilitate travel to a developing country where there is musical and medical need and where there are already medical connections from Boston.
This is a UNIQUE and GROUND-BREAKING model. While there are doctors who volunteer their services and expertise for tours, and while there are orchestras who travel internationally to perform, no other orchestra to date has been able to successfully combine the two.
The Music
The Longwood Symphony will perform three full-length symphonic concerts in London that feature violinist and humanitarian David Juritz, concertmaster of the London Mozart Players. Mr. Juritz recently returned from an ambitious 50-city worldwide tour to raise funds for music programs in developing countries, including a school in Uganda whose students are children of AIDS.
The Longwood Symphony will take a 40-piece orchestra to London and present music from British and American traditions, in this case the music of American composers Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, South American composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, and British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams.
The Beneficiary and Outreach
In keeping with its Healing Art of Music Program model, the Longwood Symphony has identified a medical charity in the UK with whom to collaborate. Marie Curie Cancer Care is one of the oldest and largest charities for cancer care in the country, and is known for its innovative and compassionate care in hospices and hospitals. The organization is celebrating its 60th year anniversary.
During their stay in London, musicians of the Longwood Symphony will also be involved in collaborative activities that will range from chamber music performances in hospices to high-level discussions about recent cancer therapies.
Members of the orchestra will perform in the Hospices of Marie Curie Cancer Care, visit its research facility, and visit the Royal Marsden Hospital’s Bob Champion Cancer Center.
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