Michael Lasserson
BMJ 2011; 343 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.d7757 (Published 30 November 2011) Cite this as: BMJ 2011;343:d7757- David Lasserson
- davidlasserson{at}googlemail.com
Michael Lasserson was a doctor for whom medicine was as much an art as a science. He was especially passionate about the links between medicine and music. A keen double bass player, in 2004 he cofounded the European Doctors Orchestra, an institution that continues to perform in concert halls throughout Europe. Twice a year, once in London and once elsewhere in the continent, as many as 100 doctors from all over Europe gather for a weekend of “furiously hard rehearsal,” to use Michael’s own words.
Musical ambition
“Musical ambition fuels our efforts and, for three enchanted days, the three horsemen of the apocalypse—audit, facilitation, and management—are banished from our lives as we assault, with suicidal courage, the commanding heights of the repertoire: Brahms and Sibelius symphonies, Mahler and Tchaikovsky,” he said.
“The orchestra embodies the principle of The Colonel’s Lady and Judy O’Grady,” Michael said, “The concertmaster is a neurosurgeon whose desk partner has just completed her general practice training; a junior surgical house officer and a consultant colorectal surgeon are joint principal …
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