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Artists for Alzheimer's Benefit Concert
Jordan Hall
New England Conservatory
30 Gainsborough Street
Boston;/br>
December 6 at 8 p.m 7
Founded in 1982, the Longwood Symphony Orchestra has 120 musicians, 80 percent of whom belong to the medical community. Honored for its achievements with the 2007 American Symphony Orchestra League/ MetLife Award for Excellence in Community Engagement, its medical professionals all carve out practice time for conductor Jonathan McPhee’s demanding repertoire. Each has different reasons for playing: contributing to the orchestra’s community service mission, finding stress release, or interacting as musicians outside of the medical setting. Others say playing for medical causes deepens their sense of purpose for practicing medicine.
“I was absolutely driven to join this orchestra,” Susan Paulker said. She learned violin in adulthood, having taken some lessons as a child. “I was playing with a community group, and I heard there was going to be a concert called ‘Reverence for Life’ in honor of Albert Schweitzer’s efforts in Africa. He was a physician who combined music with his mission.” Schweitzer, an organist, Bach scholar and theologian, was a musician first who later became a doctor. “I just worked my tail off, to come up to speed and to be able to join the orchestra for that concert,” Paulker said. “It was one of the highlights of my life, playing with Yo Yo Ma and Lynn Chang.”
The duo, good friends who both currently work in the south end of
Burlington, desired collaboration for years. They finally have the opportunity with a joint show at FLYNNDOG to cap off 2008.
Garcia is inspired by the mundane and everyday way fabrics record
memory and existence. During a recent residency at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, China, the density