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

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

Current price: $24.94
Publication Date: May 2nd, 2013
Publisher:
Pegasus Books
ISBN:
9781605984346
Pages:
320

Description

The story of The Longwood Symphony Orchestra and 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 classical radio station. Yet the LSO is not just any orchestra. The LSO began in 1982 began in 1982 with a group of talented Boston-area physicians, med students and health-care professionals and, thanks to Harvard Medical School pediatrician and violinist Lisa Wong, who became the president of the LSO in 1991, the orchestra has transformed into a proud, extraordinary group of musicians with fans around the globe.

In Scales to Scalpels, Dr. Wong chronicles how the music acumen of these physicians affects the way they administer healing and, in turn, how their medical work affects their music. How does practicing the art of music transform the art of practicing medicine?

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.

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

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

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, Dean Emeritus, New England Conservatory and Director of El Sistema, USA