RICHMOND, Virginia – It wasn’t as hot as they might have hoped, and high winds scattered sheet music and knocked over desks in Bruce and Margaret Swartz’s front yard, but make no mistake: the Members of the VCU Health Orchestra were so happy to be back together to make music, the weather was just a bit of a bother.

The conditions were “tough with the wind, but we made it work,” said Theresa Erichsen, co-founder and general manager of the orchestra, of the reunion rehearsal on the evening of April 21. The musicians generally stood at a distance from each other and remained masked. – with the exception of wind instrument players who have taken off their masks to play.

“So touching to see everyone,” said Erichsen, a trained nurse who also plays the French horn. “We were like stunned children.”

The outdoors was the safest way to get to the orchestra’s first reunion after more than a year apart due to the pandemic, so the Swartzes donated their lawn and their neighbors in their West neighborhood. End got a free concert. A few brought garden chairs. Children and dogs let off steam in neighboring yards.

“It just gave you a sense of community that maybe things will get back to normal,” said Bruce Swartz, a bass player. “Everyone had a smile on their face. It was really great.”

No band could appreciate a return to (almost) normal after the year we’ve been through, nor those involved in healthcare, and that would include the majority of the VCU Health Orchestra. Membership includes doctors, nurses, administrative staff, medical students, alumni, and a few non-medical community volunteers – like Bruce Swartz – needed to fill in the gaps in certain sections.

VCU Health is one of the few university medical centers in the United States to have its own symphony orchestra, founded in 2017. About ten musicians showed up for the first rehearsal. The roster is now around 60, and the orchestra typically performs with around 45 to 50 on stage, Erichsen said.

The orchestra plays a wide variety of music – from pop to classical – and typically gives stand-alone concerts in the community and for departmental events. Its last performance was in January 2020, a concert at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, which was also the last time the orchestra was together.

The orchestra rehearses – or did, before the pandemic – on Wednesday evening in the upstairs lobby of the cafeteria of VCU’s main hospital.

“Any patient or visitor can come,” said Erichsen, who works in workforce development in the community health division at VCU Health. “It’s part of our mission.”

The value of the relationship between music and medicine – or even music as medicine – is fully on display with the orchestra, and it’s not just about those who are listening. In addition to the benefits that research has found that music has on the human brain, just playing in an orchestra can be a great way to relieve stress for someone in a high-pressure job, Erichsen said. .

“I have doctors who come straight out of the units, so stressed,” she said. “They come over to play in scrubs and say, ‘Oh my God, I needed this so much today. I had such a tough day.’”

The titles do not go far in the orchestra. The department heads are seated next to the students, the doctors next to the nurses. There are only first names.

“We’re all musicians when we’re together, and it’s about having fun,” Erichsen said. “I think that’s what makes our group different. Just the camaraderie that we have.”

A return of this creative outlet and musical brotherhood is welcome, especially now, for those who have been on the front lines of the pandemic.

“I get emails from them about how much they need music and how much they miss it,” Erichsen said.

The reunion rehearsal represented “a kind of barrier lifting” and “a return to joy in each other’s company,” said Kara Dods, MD and PhD. student at the Faculty of Medicine and the Department of Chemistry at VCU who also plays the French horn and conducts the orchestra.

For those who have worked to keep patients alive and keep the hospital going through the pandemic, getting back together signals that “we are no longer fighting every day for every little thing,” said Dods, who worked as a vaccinator. volunteer with the VCU. Vaccine Corps at local immunization clinics. Erichsen also volunteered with the Vaccine Corps.

“We can take the time to enjoy life and play music, which is low … in terms of responsibilities in the health care system,” Dods said, “but it’s still so important. because it keeps us human and keeps us in touch with each other. “

The orchestra’s first postpandemic public concert is tentatively scheduled for Dogwood Dell on August 29. In the meantime, there will be more outdoor rehearsals.

The Swartz have invited the orchestra to return after polling their neighbors to see if anyone objected to the hubbub.

“They said they would like to see us again,” Swartz said.