An orchestra that works and plays

The Longwood Symphony Orchestra chose an unusual way to celebrate its 25th anniversary: Getting out of town. The orchestra, composed mostly of physicians and researchers, packed up the instruments and headed for the United Kingdom to play a series of concerts. The Longwood Symphony Orchestra is one of the oldest medical orchestras, and its members don't stop at playing beautiful music. They also seek to expand their scientific horizons and collaborative networks with every performance they play. Their tour of Britain was no different.

Mark Gebhardt with a colleague in the UK.

For example, Mark Gebhardt, a Boston-based orthopedist and clarinetist in the orchestra, met with colleagues at London's Royal National Orthopedic Hospital (RNOH) to work on improving prostheses.

In 2007 Gebhardt operated on a young cancer patient and installed an internal leg prosthesis created by scientists at RNOH but not approved by the FDA. "I went through all the paperwork to get approval here in the US so I could use it. So far it's worked very well." Meeting with researchers at RNOH allowed Gebhardt the opportunity to discuss the potential for encouraging soft tissue to adhere to the interior leg prosthesis without the risk of infection.

Gebhardt and his British colleagues also discussed testing exterior prostheses for amputees that connect directly to the skeleton rather than fitting into a socket. There are four US clinics that will participate in trials of these new prostheses although Gebhardt says that no formal meetings have yet been held. Those that have expressed interest so far include the University of Florida Clinic at Gainesville, the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville and the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa in addition to Gebhardt's clinic at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

The Longwood Symphony Orchestra tunes up

The London trip, says the orchestra's current board president Lisa Wong, was envisioned as a way to share music and medicine internationally. Of the 120 members of the orchestra, thirty went to London. Gebhardt was able to huddle with his British counterparts on the five day, six night whirlwind tour, during which the orchestra members rehearsed, played concerts at three hospitals, toured medical and research facilities and did some sightseeing, visiting Windsor Castle and various sites in London. Wong maintains that rather than exhausting the experience was exhilarating. "It was an amazing trip," she says, "the connections that were made went beyond expectations."

One of "lots of medical orchestras around the world," according to Wong, the group is named for the Longwood Medical Area, part of Harvard's medical campus. In 1991 the orchestra decided to use its concerts to assist area charities in their fundraising efforts. Since then, the orchestra has helped organizations like Children of Chernobyl, The March of Dimes, and Physicians for Human Rights, among many others. In total it has helped raise more than $800,000.

The orchestra is back in Boston now and tuning up for their annual summer concert on the Esplanade where the Boston Pops also plays. That concert, which takes place on August 20 this year, usually draws an audience of about 6,000.

Listen to a sample of the Longwood Symphony Orchestra in action here: