Physicians from around the globe have been putting their passion for music to good use in a series of benefit concerts in North Texas — the last of which is slated for Friday evening.
The World Doctors Orchestra (WDO) unites more than 1,800 doctors from 60 countries in an effort to drum up funds for medical-based charities by playing in concerts organized around the world. Four concerts are held per year, mobilizing roughly 100 physicians at a time.
This week Dallas and Richardson were selected as hosts for the WDO, with Southern Methodist University providing the venue for Thursday’s performance and the Eisemann Center for Performing Arts supplying a stage for Friday’s performance.
Tickets to the Richardson concert can be purchased here for between $30 and $40, with the performance starting at 7:30 p.m. All proceeds will go to Gill Children’s Services in Fort Worth and Woven Health Clinic in Farmers Branch.
A whole lot of effort went into the two North Texas concerts, with participating physicians holding several days of intense rehearsals in preparation.
“We are amateurs,” explained Dr. Sing-Yi Feng, a pediatric emergency medicine physician at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and a WDO violin player, according to NBC 5 DFW. “We do all have day jobs as physicians.”
The musical repertoire for the Richardson performance on October 20 will feature works from composers George Gershwin, Benedikt Brydern, and Ferde Grofé. Dr. Noah DeGarmo, an emergency medicine physician in Dallas, will play a special piano solo. In addition, Mark and Ute Miller of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra will be joining the WDO with their violin and viola for a premiere concerto.
After the Richardson concert, the WDO plans to make stops in Arizona, Germany, South Korea, and Australia in 2024.
Dr. Stefan Willich, director of the Institute for Social Medicine, Epidemiology, and Health Economics at Charité University Medical Center in Berlin, launched the initiative in 2008 and has since seen it take off, raising over $2 million for charity.
For Willich, this is a testament to the resounding connection between medicine and music.
“Your patients want empathy. Your audience wants empathy,” he explained. “So there are a lot of similarities.”
Willich serves as the WDO’s musical director and frequently acts as a conductor at its concerts.
