Chatswood Hosts NSW Doctors Orchestra Fundraising Concert

Chatswood hosts a different sort of fundraising event, Sunday, as twelve of the best doctors and medical students from North Shore get together for a special show at the Concourse Concert Hall.

The show is called From Russia With Love, features the NSW Doctors Orchestra. With Dr. David Banney conducting, the medical musicians are raising money for Freedom Across Australia (a group organising nation-wide tours for disabled individuals) as well as the Sydney Eisteddfod.

Playing music is “an enjoyable outlet away from work,” Alexandra Barratt, an accomplished violinist and practicing dentist in Gordon, told the North Shore Times.

“I guess what we do is fairly stressful work-wise and music balances that — and that’s why we pursue it because it’s relaxing. You make the time … so you do your work but you don’t see (music) as a chore,” she added.

Dr. Barratt has been playing the violin since the age of 10. Early in life, she was actually torn between pursuing a career in music and medicine, a problem many of her fellow musicians also experienced.

“For a lot of people, when we were kids we got to a pretty high level of playing,” Barratt said. “So when you get to that level it’s kind of in your muscle memory.”

The aim of the orchestra is to use the universal language of music to help raise money for both medicine and the arts. The group also goes by the name “Musicus Medicus,” said Cathy Fraser, founder of Roseville.

She said the Sydney Eisteddfod was instrumental in linking many of the orchestra’s players together, and the group is happy to do their part to repay the organisation.

“This year introduces a special repertoire for our medical musicians; one that I’m sure the audience will find sublime,” Fraser added.

The repertoire includes Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5, Elena Kats-Chernin’s Russian Rag, and the Khachaturian Violin Concerto.

Soloist Susan Collins will be front and centre during the performance.

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