Budding doctors hit the right note to form orchestra

Date Published: 10-Mar-2011

Music and medicine will come together at NUI Galway on Tuesday week when the Medical Orchestra is unveiled at the Arts in Action Traditional Concert.

The School of Medicine at NUI Galway is the first to launch this exciting initiative which is giving its multi-talented medical students an opportunity to showcase their musical skills. The 25-piece orchestra will open the concert, which is being headlined by renowned traditional musician Máirtin O’Connor and his five-piece band.

Preparations are well underway for the orchestra’s first concert under the guidance of Mary McPartlan, Professional Singer and Creative Director of the Medicine and the Arts Module at NUI Galway and Musical Director Carl Hession, a music teacher at Colaiste Iognaid in Galway City.

Many of the students who volunteer their time are accomplished musicians who are thrilled to work together under the guidance of Mary McPartlan and Carl Hession, who has composed and arranged the music for their performance.

Dr. Gerard Flaherty, Senior Lecturer in Clinical Medicine and Medical Education at NUI Galway, and Chairperson of the Medical School’s new Arts committee, said: “Patients benefit greatly from music as they try to cope with and recover from illness. I firmly believe that music can be the medicine of the mind. “Our new orchestra will showcase the wonderful, but sometimes hidden talents of our medical students, and bring some joy to the wider community through their public performances.

The concert takes place on Tuesday, March 22 at 8pm (doors open at 7.30pm) in the Bailey Allen Hall at NUI Galway.

For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.