Medicine is a demanding profession and there’s a lot of pressure to excel. So for University of Kansas medical student Liam Carroll, carving time out for music is essential.
“Music is something that I can really turn my medical brain off, let it rest,” he said. “Because you could not sleep for a week and you would still not know everything that's going to be on that test.”
That’s why Carroll plays violin in the Medical Arts Symphony of Kansas City, one of the oldest medical orchestras in the country. The group gives medical professionals and students in Kansas City a chance to tune out of medicine and flex their musical muscles. Despite its name, the group welcomes professionals from all fields.
The practice and performance helps Carroll, who studied violin as an undergrad at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, see the bigger picture.
“Just having passions outside of medicine and studying, they're incredibly rejuvenating,” he said.
“When I go back to studying, (I) have like a bigger-picture idea that I'm definitely more than this next exam or the grades I have right now,” said Carroll, who is on the symphony’s board of directors. “It reminds me that there's a lot more that I have to offer, that the world has to offer, that is kind of outside of medicine.”
Music director Steve Lewis said the ensemble’s effect can be really motivating for his already high-achieving members.
“If you're sitting at home practicing, you may have motivation. But when your colleagues are depending on you, that's another level of motivation,” he said.
Lewis is a French horn player who came to Kansas City five years ago for advanced studies in conducting at the UMKC Conservatory. He has conducted the Medical Arts Symphony of Kansas City for eight seasons.
“I want to make sure that everyone is engaged with the programs that we do,” Lewis said. “So some pieces are going to be things that I know the orchestra will perform really well without a lot of rehearsal, and some things I know we're going to have to dig pretty deep and work really hard.”
Apart from giving more people more ways to participate in music, Lewis is working towards a larger goal for the ensemble.
“As we progress through this, there will be more repertoire that is more approachable and we can go on to more challenging things that are rewarding for the players, but also the audiences that come and hear us,” he said.
For oboist Robin Onikul, playing with the group is about returning to a long lost love: music.
“I would say 10 years ago, I still had my old oboe and I felt like I should go back to it,” she said. “And then I realized how much I've really missed playing the oboe.”
When Onikul isn't leading the oboe section, she’s head of the Department of Dentistry at Children's Mercy Hospital.
“My avocation of music makes me love my job during the day and love doing what I do at night,” Onikul said.
“Everybody comes from different backgrounds, but we all come together to make this beautiful music,” she said. And I think that that's great.”
It’s not just the playing. Onikul said performing in front of an audience gives her something to strive for. February’s concert featured Johannes Brahms’ “Variations on a Theme by Haydn,” which has a juicy part for the oboe. Onikul wanted to get it just right.
“There was one little spot that is very awkward, and I spent probably hours going over it, getting it exactly the way I needed it to be — and it goes by in a half a second,” Onikul said, laughing. “It feels like you've achieved something.”
All the hard work is paying off in some measure. The Medical Arts Symphony will expand its scope at its next concert by introducing a new chorus, singing Schubert’s “Mass in G.”
Medical Arts Symphony performs at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 20, in Battenfeld Auditorium in the Student Center at KU Medical Center, 3901 Rainbow Blvd., Kansas City, Kansas, 66160. Admission is free. More information is at kcmasymphony.org.
