Future physician launches Canada’s first Canadian Doctors Orchestra

A medical student is helping bring together health-care professionals from across the country through a shared passion for music. The post Future physician launches Canada’s first Canadian Doctors Orchestra appeared first on CHEK .

A medical student is helping bring together health-care professionals from across the country through a shared passion for music. Andrew Loe, a UBC med student in the satellite program based at the University of Victoria and an accomplished violist, has co-founded the Canadian Doctors Orchestra after discovering that no national ensemble existed for physician-musicians. Watch below: Loading the player...

Loe’s inspiration came from learning about the World Doctors Orchestra, an international organization that brings together more than 2,000 physician musicians from 60 countries for performances around the globe. “From there I was like, ‘Well maybe I should join whatever the Canadian Doctors Orchestra would be,’ and when I found out that it didn’t exist, then, let’s see what it takes to start this,” Loe said. The project quickly gained traction.

After launching a website and opening auditions, the orchestra received registrations from about 180 people, with roughly 85 musicians submitting auditions. The orchestra is open to physicians, medical students and other healthcare professionals from across Canada. While competition is strong across several sections, Loe says flute players face the toughest odds.

“The biggest section that I’m sad is going to have to make cuts is flute players. It’s just so competitive,” he said. The orchestra’s inaugural performance is scheduled for Dec. 20 in Victoria.

Musicians selected for the ensemble will rehearse their parts individually before gathering in person for a weekend of final rehearsals leading up to the concert. Andrea Kenney serves as the orchestra’s co-founder and treasurer. While she jokes that her clarinet-playing days ended in high school, she now plays a key role behind the scenes by organizing auditions, managing finances and co-ordinating fundraising efforts.

“It’s quite robust at this point. There are multiple tabs going on,” Kenney said of the organization’s growing spreadsheets. For Loe, launching Canada’s first Doctors Orchestra combines two lifelong passions.

As far as marrying medicine and music, career options are limited. Treating musicians suffering from repetitive motion-related injuries could be the only crossover, but he’s not headed down that carpal tunnel. “I might be interested in family medicine.

Maybe emergency medicine,” he said. For now, however, his focus is on conducting the orchestra’s successful debut and proving that music can bring together Canada’s health-care community in a unique and meaningful way. “A big part of it is showing what kind of players we’ve got in healthcare,” says Loe.

We’ll see on Dec. 18. READ ALSO: Saanich musician perseveres despite setback from medical diagnosis The post Future physician launches Canada’s first Canadian Doctors Orchestra appeared first on CHEK .