Doctor Violinist

May 19, 2005 at 05:15 PM · My husband is a doctor & violinist. He studied privately during medical school and also played in his university orchestra. In fact, during medical school he spent a summer playing in the Portugese Radio Symphony in Lisbon. He still performs a lot in ensembles and a semi-professional orchestra. But he doesn't practice much! Most community orchestras are filled with doctors, and many of them are very good players. Not too many lawyers, however!

May 19, 2005 at 07:25 PM · My friend's oncologist is a violinist who plays in a community orchestra. I guess he had to practice sometime.

May 19, 2005 at 07:57 PM · You could be a music therapist. They're doctors that use music as medicine.

May 19, 2005 at 08:23 PM · There are several doctors (of various types, MDs, DVMs, PhDs) in our community orchestra...

May 19, 2005 at 08:31 PM · Thanks. I guesss I should explain myself alittle more though. My ultimate goal is to one day be a virtuoso. I just want to know whether or not I will be able to do that inside medicine school. Does practice time differ for each med school? Specifically how many hours did you guys get to practice during med school? And will that be enough time for me to acquire virtuoso skills?

May 19, 2005 at 09:00 PM · In the United States, at a good medical school, you will have time to play a bit, here and there, but you will not have the time needed to become a virtuoso. At a good medical school, most of your time, seven days a week, will be spent studying medicine. IMHO, it is a lot easier to become a good physician than to become a violin virtuoso, but you do have to do the medical work. Depending on your medical/surgical specialty, you may have more time during your residency program to play. It also depends on how much sleep you naturally need to function well. Hope this helps!

May 19, 2005 at 09:44 PM · I am a cardiac surgeon in the UK. I did not do much practising when I was training to be a surgeon but since my career was established I got back into playing big time. It took me several years to get back to where I left off, but 3 years ago I became the leader of a local community orchestra and I performed the Bruch Violin Concerto with them in 2003. It was a lot of hard work, but it was something I had to do and I made time to do it. It really depends on what you mean by being a virtuoso - if you want to have a soloist career "on the side" I'd say you'd be hard pushed to do it. If music was in your blood like that you should pursue it as a career or you may regret it. For someone like me, I have a good career and I enjoy my music. I can afford fine violins. And yes, I got back to playing to a very high standard even with a busy career as a doctor. Hope this helps!

Best Wishes.

May 19, 2005 at 09:55 PM · I don't think you can be a good composer AND performer. It's pretty difficult.

May 19, 2005 at 10:11 PM · I could not see either of my parents having time to practice an instrument. A community orchestra might be realistic, but I doubt much more if you ever want to relax.