The VCU Health Orchestra in performance at Fort Lee (Photo courtesy Mimi Peberdy)
By day, registered nurse Theresa Erichsen is a lactation consultant and childbirth educator, but after work comes a chance to indulge her inner musician.
“I’m a nurse who plays the horn,” says Erichsen. She has performed as a musician (second French horn) with several metro area ensembles, including the Richmond Philharmonic Orchestra, and she’s also a co-founder of the VCU Health Orchestra with Dr. Francesco Celi.
For orchestra members, making music offers a chance for relaxation, a way to head off professional burnout and an opportunity to build a sense of community, too.
The orchestra opens its season with a Halloween-themed performance (come in costume if you want) at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 16 at Firehouse Theatre. Donations will be accepted at the door to allay operational costs. Tenor Pablo Talamante of the U.S. Army Choir will join the orchestra in the performance. The ensemble also will perform a Halloween event at 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 25 at the medical school’s Larrick Student Center, 900 Turpin St.
The name says VCU Health, but this is more of a community effort, melding the talents of medical professionals and students with performers from the greater metro Richmond community. There also are efforts to work with local high schoolers, a way to give them face time with medical professionals and with music, too, says Erichsen. “Our mission is community outreach,” she says.
The orchestra performs about eight times a year at events and other functions, including a holiday performance last year at the McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center and a spring fundraiser concert at the Science Museum of Virginia.
The repertoire is a mélange of classical tunes, pop music, and show and movie music. The goal is to have something for everyone.
“We can do so many different things,” says Erichsen.
Celi, chair of VCU’s Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, is orchestra president and a violinist. He says that there was a critical mass of interest for some time, but it had just not been put together. Meeting Erichsen provided serendipitous: She provided the glue to bring the orchestra to fruition.
“It’s funny how it came together so perfectly,” says Erichsen.
The orchestra grew from a conversation between Erichsen and Celi, one that touched on how music can allay professional burnout and serve as a creative outlet from a pressure-filled job and also as a way to give back to the community. A handful of other medical schools have similar ensembles, including Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.
The founders put the word out in October 2017, and the orchestra soon had its first practice with a dozen performers.
The backgrounds are as diverse as the city where they play. Some have music degrees, others don’t, but all bring a passion to the project. One percussionist is in high school. Erichsen has played since she was a preteen, while Celi came to the violin late, taking up the instrument after a daughter had started lessons on the instrument.
Others are consummate professionals. Will Pattie, the conductor for the VCU Health Orchestra, is also assistant conductor for the Richmond Philharmonic and a music teacher with a master’s degree in orchestral conducting.
Erichsen solicited some help from performers in the community to play with the orchestra.
“I had to bring some strong players to the table,” she says.
Practices are two hours each Wednesday evening and are held upstairs in the main hospital cafeteria. They’re open to all, and patients are encouraged to listen and relax.
The practices serve a similar purpose for the performers, says, Erichsen. She notes that one performer, an emergency room nurse, comes to practices at times following a 12-hour shift to de-stress.
“We’re there to provide stress relief, not to be more stress,” she says.
Chris Chou is a cellist with the group who was a med school student at VCU and is now in his residency here. He says he had been heavily involved in music during high school and college, but before the VCU Health Orchestra was formed, there were no musical outlets available locally that could accommodate the odd hours and extensive time commitment facing a med school student.
He says he appreciates how the group provides some structure and the impetus to practice, as well as a performance outlet, but it is also flexible and a low-key setting.
“It was a great way to keep up the music as a hobby,” he says.
Chou also enjoys having a chance to get to know other VCU Health peers outside of work. Medicine has become more of a collaborative effort, and the diverse backgrounds of orchestra participants helps build a collegial atmosphere and enhances a sense of community.
“The fact that we can play together makes us feel like a team,” says Celi. “It makes us feel like the community that we want to be.”
This year, there are more than 50 musicians overall, with about 40 available on average for a performance. There’s a synergy sparked in such a diverse melding of backgrounds and talents, says Erichsen. The players from the community groups help elevate the medical community participants, and in turn, there’s more of a communal, helping-one-another environment.
“We just get together and play and have fun,” she says. That attitude keeps the performers returning for more.
Rachel Artman, a third-year occupational health student and a trombonist, has performed with the orchestra since its inception. She had enjoyed performing while in high school and says that she was doing nothing with her music when she heard about the orchestra and signed up.
“It really was fun,” she says. “It’s a very supportive environment.”
She’s set to graduate in spring and says she wants to continue with a music ensemble wherever her career leads.
“I definitely want to stay involved.”
