Scales to Scalpels: Doctors Who Practice the Healing Arts of Music and Medicine

by Lisa Wong

Overview

The incredible story of the Longwood Symphony Orchestra that reveals the remarkable interplay between music and medicine.

You may have read about the Longwood Symphony orchestra (LSO) in the paper or heard them on your favorite radio station. But the LSO is not just any orchestra. it began in 1982 with a group of talented Boston-area physicians, med students and health-care professionals and has since flourished under the leadership of violinist Dr. Lisa Wong, who became president of the LSO in 1991. The orchestra is now a proud, extraordinary group of musicians with fans around the globe.

In Scales to Scalpels, Dr. Wong and Robert Viagas chronicle how the musical acumen of these physicians affects the way they administer healing and, in turn, how their work affects their music. What cognitive and emotional shifts occur when a surgeon transitions from the chaos of the ER to the discipline of the orchestra rehearsal studio? What’s it like to make a house call to a poor neighborhood in the morning and then play trumpet in a jazz group that night? Does music heal the doctors the way the doctors heal their patients? How does practicing the art of music transform the art of practicing medicine?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781605984346
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	05/02/2013
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.70(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Dr. Lisa Wong is an associate in pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and maintains her own private practice in Boston’s South Shore. She is the president of the Longwood Symphony, a board member of young Audiences of Massachusetts and helped start “Bring Back the Music,” which revitalized in-class instrumental music instruction in Boston public schools.

Table of Contents

Foreword Bernard Lown xi

Foreword Lisa Wong xv

Part I Introducing the Musician-Physician 1

1 Overture to the Musician-Physician 3

2 A Pediatrician with a Violin 15

3 Music and Healers, from Apollo to Dr. Albert Schweitzer 27

4 The Longwood Symphony Orchestra Finds Its Own Lambaréné 41

Part II Music, Medicine, and Healing 59

5 Musician-Physician Modulation 61

6 Music As Healing 85

7 Music and Brain Development 115

8 Left and Right Hemispheres 141

9 Overcoming Discord 151

10 Musician, Heal Thyself 161

11 Music and Mental Health 183

Part III Musician-Physicians and the Community 201

12 From Clashing Chords to Perfect Harmonies 203

13 Bringing the Humanities Back to Medicine 219

14 Tomorrow's Musician-Physicians 241

Appendix A What We Listen To 259

Appendix B Personal Suggestions from the Musician-Physicians 265

Works Cited 269

Additional Articles 273

Longwood Symphony Orchestra's Community Partners 1991-2011 277

Notes 279

What People are Saying About This

Yo-Yo Ma

All congratulations to the Longwood Symphony Orchestra for making the connection between music and medicine so visible and palpable. Following Dr. Albert Schweitzer’s ‘reverence for life’ philosophy, Dr. Wong and each of her L.S.O.colleagues serve humanity on so many levels.

Editorial Reviews

I was impressed by the breadth and creativity of the program and the astonishing finesse.

The Wall Street Journal

All congratulations to the Longwood Symphony Orchestra for making the connection between music and medicine so visible and palpable. Following Dr. Albert Schweitzer’s ‘reverence for life’ philosophy, Dr. Wong and each of her L.S.O.colleagues serve humanity on so many levels.

Yo-Yo Ma

Music nurtures, supports, sustains and empowers every aspect of human existence. How natural a companion, then,is music to our medical healers and the art they practice. Dr.Wong’s absorbing narrative provides a loving window into the lives of medical professionals where healing and music dance in radiant harmony. An inspirational must-read for all who seek lives of joy and contribution.

Mark Churchil

With the assistance of playbill.com founder Viagas (I'm the Greatest Star: Broadway's Top Musical Legends from 1900 to Today, 2009, etc.), Wong sums up her experiences as president of Boston's Longwood Symphony Orchestra. The author joined this relatively unique orchestra of semi-professional musicians who are also medical practitioners in 1985, at a time when it was made up of "an enthusiastic but rather motley band of eighty or ninety musicians." In college Wong had dreamed of becoming a professional violinist but decided on a medical career instead. Despite the demands of a thriving pediatric practice, marriage and motherhood, she joined the LSO and served as president from 1991 to 2012. She provides thumbnail sketches of other members of the orchestra to substantiate her assertion that music and medicine can be complementary, and she explains that the ability to listen is crucial both for musicians performing in an orchestra and doctors treating patients. Both disciplines require "passion, focus, training, and the sharing of humanity with those around us," and for doctors who need to suppress their own emotions in professional situations, playing music can be a welcome release. Wong also discusses the clinical benefits of listening to music--e.g., stroke victims who regain their lost ability to speak by singing; withdrawn patients suffering from dementia who become responsive through music--and pays special tribute to Dr. Albert Schweitzer, the Nobel Prize–winning doctor whose combined career as a missionary and musician remains an inspiration. Wong's message is simple yet profound: Music heals.

Kirkus Reviews