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High-Achieving MDs and PhDs Find Harmony in Orchestra
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Nancia D'Alimonte, the orchestra's conductor, said the NIH musicians range in age from 23 to 73. She said they are unusually dedicated and absorb lessons quickly.
"They're these very intellectual people," she said. "They want to be challenged. It's very awesome. They're quick learners. They're malleable, and they get it in a snap."
During the nearly three-hour rehearsal Tuesday, D'Alimonte challenged her musicians. Speaking in her Italian accent and swinging her arms with passion, D'Alimonte worked to smooth the transitions and build drama leading to the crescendos.
"Come on, release it!" D'Alimonte yelled. Magically, the music came to life.
"It's just kind of a rush to perform with big sound like that," said violinist Amy DeLouise, 44.
DeLouise is a nonprofits consultant, making her one of the orchestra's few nonscientists. But that doesn't mean she's anti-science. She turned to her friend, Richard Siegel, a violinist sitting next to her. As undergraduates at Yale University, they played violin together in the school's orchestra, and DeLouise recruited him to join her in the NIH Philharmonia.
"He's a world-famous scientist," DeLouise said.
"You can look me up," added Siegel, 44.
They were right. Richard M. Siegel, MD, PhD, is one of the country's top immunologists and a tenured faculty member at NIH. He runs a lab that is charged with regulating the human immune system and researching autoimmune diseases.
So how does he find time to practice violin and attend rehearsals, not to mention hang out with his family? Siegel said he squeezes it in.
"Lab work and research is very not nine-to-five," he said. "The cells don't know what time it is, and patients don't know what time it is."
Even Kevin Marvin, the bass-playing pharmacist who invented the tailpiece, makes time for rehearsals -- and he commutes from Burlington, Vt. Marvin travels to Bethesda a few days a week to work as a consultant at NIH, where he is developing a computer system to track pharmacy medications. Playing in the orchestra, he said, helps him meet colleagues and escape the stress of his job.
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