By Doug Brunk, San Diego Bureau
In 1964, when C. Wright Pinson, M.D., was just 11 years old, he bought his first set of Ludwig drums.
The price tag was $300, "which was 100% of my net worth at the time," quipped Dr. Pinson, professor of surgery and chief medical officer at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tenn.
Dr. Pinson went on to play in garage bands as a teenager and through his college years.
After medical school, Dr. Pinson played the drums "from time to time," but not on a regular basis. That changed in the summer of 1998, when Vanderbilt University Medical Center CEO Norman B. Urmy, a guitarist, invited him to a jam session with other university colleagues. The effort led to the formation of a band that initially called itself "Five Middle-Aged Guys and a Chick."
The nine-piece band renamed itself Soul Incision, and this year released its second CD, "Wide Open," a collection of rock 'n' roll staples you'd expect to hear at a wedding reception, including "We Are Family," "I Will Survive," and "Dancing in the Street" (www.soulincision.com
The band plays several gigs a year from coast to coast, including fund-raisers, weddings, and medical conferences, and has even shared the stage with notable names such as Charlie Daniels, Billy Dean, Vince Gill, and Delbert McClinton.
"Everybody in this band is a type A personality," said Dr. Pinson, who uses the set of Ludwig drums he purchased as an 11-year-old when the band performs live. "Everybody really works at their part and tries to get good at it."
He considers his involvement a crucial outlet for creativity and stress.
"There's no question that our medical lives are pretty stressful," Dr. Pinson remarked. "A lot of our professional behaviors are very tightly proscribed, compared with other businesses. In the medical profession, you're pretty regimented. … It's pretty tight in terms of pressure. So, then you go over to the studio or you go out on a gig, you change clothes, you change appearances, and you gotta start going with the flow. You gotta get into the groove. The rigidity has to go away, and the creativity has to start coming out."
Stephen Moshman, M.D., can identify with that. In 1982, he founded the Albert Einstein Symphony Orchestra in Bronx, N.Y., because "it was a part of my life that was missing."
A former violinist, Dr. Moshman had turned his musical attention to composing and conducting when he informally asked his musically adept colleagues about their interest in putting together a small ensemble. That led to the formation of a 45-member orchestra comprising faculty, students, and community members, which he now conducts.
"A lot of physicians are very skilled musicians and really use music as an outlet," said Dr. Moshman, who practices internal medicine at New York Medical College/Westchester Medical Center and also teaches at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. "I think that was the initial appeal of the group. I had no trouble getting people because they had put their violin away. They thought it was in mothballs for life and they said, 'At last! I have an outlet.' They really came to this. It was quite something."
The orchestra conducts rehearsals and stages four concerts per year in a large lecture hall provided by the medical school.
"Every other year we do a complete concert performance of a Gilbert and Sullivan opera," he said. "Then we have singers and soloists as well, so we swell to 65 people or so on a small stage. It's tight."
Dr. Moshman has written about two dozen compositions and is completing a score to mark the orchestra's 25th anniversary next year.
Jeffrey K. Pearson, D.O., a guitarist and singer, is also an avid songwriter. One section of his Web site (www.medicine-in-motion.com
He creates the material at home in the corner of a spare bedroom where his guitars, amplifier, and a 16-track recorder are stored. The amount of time he devotes to playing and recording varies. "Lately, it's been 12 hours a night because I'm working on a song," said Dr. Pearson, who practices family, sports, and industrial medicine in San Marcos, Calif. "But I may skip a week, too. This is strictly for fun."
Still, by sharing his musical side, his potential and current patients "recognize I have a personality, that I'm a real person," he said. "They like that and they download the songs."
Earlier this year, William L. Shoemaker, M.D., spent more than $8,000 to participate in the Los Angeles-based Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy Camp 2005, a 5-day immersion in instruction from several rock musicians, including the Who's frontman Roger Daltrey, Jane Wiedlin of the Go-Go's, and Simon Kirke of Bad Company.