EDMONDS — In the warm stillness of a sunny August evening, their music could be heard from the sidewalk outside Kiyon Chung’s doorstep: the deep, soulful tones of her cello and the ringing chords from a baby grand piano played by her accompanist, Luke Walker.
The two musicians, who are both physicians, were rehearsing the Sonata for Cello and Piano in A Major by Cesar Franck.
Sometimes the music would abruptly stop, as they doubled back to practice the composition’s troublesome, difficult passages.
Their 90-minute practice session, held in Chung’s living room, was preparation for an upcoming benefit concert for Doctors Without Borders, an international aid organization. They worked to find just the right blend from each of their instruments to fit the mood, melody and energy for the performance.
With Franck’s music as background and the view from Chung’s living room of Puget Sound tinged in gold by the setting sun, it’s hard to imagine the chaotic circumstances into which Doctors Without Borders volunteers are thrust each day, responding to wars, famines, earthquakes and floods.
Some 27,000 volunteers — doctors, nurses, sanitation experts and other professionals — are now at work in nearly 60 countries worldwide.
In one of those countries alone, Pakistan, water-borne illnesses following recent massive floods have sickened at least 1 million people. Tens of thousands have been stricken with malaria.
Local physicians have rallied to help the organization by participating in a Sept. 24 musical recital in Seattle. It will take place at Sherman Clay’s Seattle piano store at 1624 Fourth Ave. A reception before the concert begins at 6:30 p.m. with performances starting at 7:30 p.m.
The event, “Music With No Borders for Doctors Without Borders,” was organized by Dr. Tomasz Ziedalski, a pulmonary and critical care physician for Western Washington Medical Group in Everett.
The recital will include nine pieces of music by classical composers such as Frederic Chopin and Sergei Rachmaninoff.
In addition to Ziedalski, four other Snohomish County physicians will perform: Chung, a cardiologist at The Everett Clinic; Walker, an oncologist at Providence Regional Cancer Partnership; Dr. Cristina Santiago, who works at Providence Regional Medical Center Everett; and Dr. Ben Killey, a physician who works in the emergency rooms at Providence and Valley General Hospital in Monroe.
No tickets are being sold to the event, and there’s no minimum donation. However, reservations are required, because of limited seating for 200 people and the reception.
The performers are leaving it up to each person to decide what to give. They hope to raise $20,000.
By design, the money won’t be targeted to one specific global site experiencing crisis.
“We started planning this event almost a year ago,” Ziedalski said. “A couple of months ago, we would have been talking about Haiti.” While Pakistan is now in the news, in another two months, yet another disaster could arise, he said.
The decision will be left to Doctors Without Borders, he said. “They know best where the funds are needed.”
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A recital is an unusual way for doctors to assist a humanitarian cause, forgoing white lab coats and stethoscopes for grand pianos and musical staffs. Although it may seem improbable that this event is a new twist on fundraising, Everett-area physicians may have done just that. A recital by physicians is believed to be the first-of-its-kind fundraiser for the international nonprofit.
The idea is relatively simple, Ziedalski said, doctors helping doctors, each in his or her own way, to benefit others.
“Rather than just some kind of auction or dinner fundraiser, we have the doctors volunteer their efforts and put themselves on the line and on the stage and share their passion for music,” he said. “We found out there’s a lot of talented musicians.”
Earlier this year, he began asking fellow doctors to join him in the benefit performance.
The work of Doctors Without Borders volunteers has interested Ziedalski for years. “They have to give up their home and family for up to a year abroad,” he said.
But knowing the experience of someone who has volunteered for a mercy mission transforms a crisis from just another headline to a direct connection to the event.
For Ziedalski, that person was Dr. Desmond Sjauwfoekloy, someone he met while undergoing critical care training at Stanford University.
Sjauwfoekloy was sent to a rural area of Kenya in 2007 for nine months. He was assigned to work on tuberculosis and HIV and AIDS programs, which provided services for approximately 10,000 HIV and AIDS patients.
When election violence broke out, and patients scattered, he worked to track down those in need of medical treatment.
The story behind this story, though, is what happened to Sjauwfoekloy before he even left for Kenya.
“He had to resign his position to do what he wanted,” Ziedalski said, then come back and look for a new job when he returned to the United States.
“I greatly admire doctors and nurses who are able to make that kind of commitment,” he said. “A lot of times physicians who admire that kind of work and wish to be more involved are not able to. They have a difficult time doing so because of the time commitment and the hardship on their medical practice.”
Now living in near Los Angeles, Sjauwfoekloy has agreed to come to Seattle for the recital. He will present a lecture and slideshow on his Kenyan experience.
* * *
Doctors are accustomed to dealing with the stress of life-and-death situations — responding to a patient’s heart rhythm monitor unexpectedly going to flat line, major arteries severed in accidents or brain functions collapsing in confusion from stroke.
Yet for all the years of professional experience in stressful situations, Ziedalski admits he will feel some apprehension as he sits down at the piano bench.
“Yes, definitely, there will be stage fright from all of us,” he said.
“It is a lot easier to take care of a very unstable patient in the intensive care unit than to perform in front of my peers,” he said. “Medical work is what we do daily; we’re very comfortable with it. Music is something we do as a hobby. We don’t have time to practice eight to 10 hours a day, like we do medicine.”
Each composition performed during the recital was selected by its performer for a reason, something other than its lasting musical beauty.
For Ziedalski, it is Etude No. 3 by Frederic Chopin, a composer from his homeland of Poland. The performance is his way of marking the 200th anniversary of the composer’s birth.
“I pretty much grew up listening to Chopin,” he said. “To me, it’s not just music, it’s kind of a semi-patriotic experience.”
Chung is excited about the chance to once again perform the composition by Cesar Franck. “I’ve loved this piece for a very long time and haven’t been able to perform it for 20 years,” she said.
“It’s been a wonderful chance to practice this piece for a wonderful cause …We’re happy to support them in this very small way.”
Walker said he enjoys seeing another side of his fellow physicians, something different than their day-to-day work in hospitals and medical clinics.
Ziedalski agreed. “We know each other professionally, taking care of patients with disease. But there’s a different side to doctors, a little more artistic side,” he said. “This event nicely showcases that there’s more to us than the routine white coat.”
To reserve a seat for the show
The benefit for Doctors Without Borders is scheduled for Sept. 24 at Sherman Clay’s Seattle piano store, 1624 Fourth Ave., Seattle. The reception begins at 6:30 p.m. and the recital at 7:30 p.m. There are no tickets and no minimum donation to attend. But reservations are required and must be made by Sept. 17; e-mail musicwithnoborders@gmail.com.
Donations also may be sent to: Dr. Tomasz Ziedalski, Western Washington Medical Group, 1330 Rockefeller Ave. Suite 340, Everett, WA 98201. Checks should be made to Doctors Without Borders.
Here’s the list of compositions that will be performed at the fundraiser for Doctors Without Borders:
• Etude No. 3, Op. 10, Frederic Chopin; performed by Dr. Tomasz Ziedalski
• 18th Variation “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini,” Op.43, Sergei Rachmaninoff; performed by Dr. Cristina Santiago
• Toccata in E minor, Johann Sebastian Bach; performed by Dr. Jonathan Fox
• Polonaise in A-flat, Op. 53., Frederic Chopin; performed by Dr. Jonathan Fox
• Allegretto poco mosso — Sonata for cello and piano in A major, Cesar Franck; performed by Dr.
Kiyon Chung (cello) and Dr. Luke Walker (piano)
• “To Kenya With MSF,” a lecture by Dr. Desmond Sjauwfoekloy
• “Excursions,” Op. 20 (I-IV), Samuel Barber; performed by Dr. Jane Dunham
• Chopin Ballade No. 4 in F minor, Op. 52, Frederic Chopin; performed by Dr. Benjamin Killey
• “Children’s March,” Percy Grainger; performed by Dr. Benjamin Killey and Arief Abraham
A second benefit will also take place on Sept. 24, following the recital. A rock-and-roll band led by Everett physician Spark Corwin , a colleague of Ziedalski, will perform at 10 p.m. at the Post pub, 1914 Post Alley, Seattle.
About the performers:
Dr. Cristina Santiago grew up in a family of six in the Philippines, learning to play on the family’s piano, one used by both her father and grandfather.
Her father took pride in the instrument, calling it an antique. Santiago thinks it has a far more common lineage, more like a castoff. Nevertheless, it was enough to fire her love for the piano.
Santiago, who works overnight shifts at Providence Regional Medical Center Everett, often finds herself awake at 2 a.m., even on her days off. It’s a favorite time to sit at the keyboard of her grand piano.
Her early morning practice sessions are “pretty much my only distraction in a very good sense” from the pressures of treating patients at night. “You’re with them at their most vulnerable,” she said.
Dr. Ben Killey, a physician who works in the emergency rooms at hospitals in Everett and Monroe, grew up on a cattle and hog farm in rural Illinois. Music was so interwoven into his family’s life that the only time someone wasn’t playing the piano was during his dad’s after-lunch nap.
He was taught the piano by his mother, beginning at age 7. She had a degree in music education and later earned a master’s degree in organ. His sister became a piano performance major. His grandmother used to sing on the radio. A cousin is a member of the opera in Salt Lake City.
Killey earned a double degree in piano performance and biology at Illinois Wesleyan University, where he was also named the most outstanding graduate in the School of Music.
Dr. Kiyon Chung didn’t have the greatest introduction to the cello. “It wasn’t exactly my decision in the beginning,” she said, though she now finds humor in the stories.
She and her sister were choosing which instruments they wanted to learn. “My sister threw a temper tantrum and took the violin!” she said.
Chung was left with the heftier cello to haul from home to music lessons. “I wished I had played something a lot lighter — like the flute,” she said.
Despite the less-than-love-at-first-sight beginnings, her love of the instrument grew, as did her accomplishment with it. She has performed with the New York String Orchestra and Philharmonia Northwest, a Seattle-based chamber orchestra.
She practices cardiology at The Everett Clinic. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in cardiovascular epidemiology and received a master’s degree in public health.
Dr. Luke Walker was born in Oklahoma and received his medical degree from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. He currently practices medical oncology at Providence Regional Cancer Partnership in Everett. He has been playing piano since age 6, performing in several individual recitals as well as with other instrumentalists and vocalists.
Dr. Tomasz Ziedalski was born in Warsaw, Poland, and moved to the United States as a teenager. After graduating from University of Washington School of Medicine, he completed a pulmonary and critical care fellowship at Stanford University. Since 2004, he has practiced pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine with Western Washington Medical Group in Everett.
Dr. Jane Dunham began studying the piano at age 6 and the flute at age 10. She continued her flute studies at Stanford University, performing junior and senior solo recitals and participating in the Stanford Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra. Dunham attended medical school at the University of Washington. She has a solo internal medicine practice in Federal Way.
Dr. Jonathan Fox is a pediatrician at Virginia Mason Federal Way. He attended the University of California at Los Angeles as a mathematics major, medical school at UC Davis, and completed a pediatrics residency at University of Texas Southwestern. He has performed in various venues over the years, most recently at the Herbert Zipper Concert Hall in Los Angeles.
Dr. Desmond Sjauwfoekloy specializes in pulmonary and critical care medicine. He returned from a mission with Doctors Without Borders in July 2008. He spent nine months in Homa Bay, a rural area of Kenya. He attended the University of Southern California School of Medicine and completed a fellowship in pulmonary and critical care medicine at Stanford University. He currently lives near Los Angeles.
Arief Abraham is originally from Jakarta, Indonesia. His piano studies began at age 5. By the time he was 14, he had appeared on numerous national stages to perform his original compositions including a piano and flute duet titled, “Winter Imagination.”
After graduating with a degree in economics and French, he moved to Seattle in 1998 to pursue a career in high-tech marketing. He is a pianist at Holy Spirit Lutheran Church in Kirkland and a member of the Seattle Men’s Chorus. He is the only non-doctor performing at the concert.
Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486 or salyer@heraldnet.com.
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