3/27/1997

La Scena Musicale, 14.6 (March) 2009
2009 March 27
HANNAH RAHIMI

Imagine an orchestra in which half the members can recite the Hippocratic oath as easily as they can play a scale. Enter I Medici di McGill, the Montreal ensemble that boasts a wealth of doctors and medical students amidst a splattering of lawyers, dentists, engineers, biochemists, physicists and oceanographers. “Even those musicians who aren’t doctors have surely visited one over the past two years. That way we maintain the medical link,” jokes Ante Padjen, founder and principal violist of I Medici.
Padjen, a neuropharmacologist at McGill University, comes to life when he discusses his orchestra. In his office on the 13th floor of the McGill medical building, he shuffles through scrapbooks that date back to I Medici’s conception in 1989. Meanwhile, in the reception area, the secretary and her computer fight for space with a harpsichord and a double bass leaning against the filing cabinets.

Padjen’s musical life began in Croatia at an early age. His father, an amateur violinist, enrolled him in music school, which provided three hours a day of immensely formative education. Graced with a forward-thinking theory teacher, Prof. Elly Basic, who shed the traditionally rigid practices of music pedagogy, Padjen acquired a great appreciation for music and discovered his own natural talent.“We were taught to believe that music is something every child has the ability to do,” he says. “It is an innate capability.” Later, Padjen studied viola with Prof. Miroslav Miletic who was also a composer.

At the age of fourteen, a twist of fate led Padjen from a musical path to a medical one. Stricken with tuberculosis, he was confined to a sanatorium for 600 days. Chance handed him a roommate who happened to be a physician, sparking in Padjen a voracious enthusiasm for medicine. After two years, he left the hospital inspired to pursue a medical career. Impressively, he never fully “dropped out of music.”While in medical school, at the age of 18, he formed the Jeunesses Musicales Orchestra in Zagreb. But when offered a placement at the prestigious Orford summer academy, Padjen went instead to Geneva, where he delivered babies for his medical training.

Straying from Zagreb to Edinburgh to Washington to Texas, Padjen finally fell in love with Montreal, recognizing that here he could raise a family and enjoy the kind of life he had envisioned for himself.“And then of course there was McGill,” he adds. Quickly forming string quartets with talented colleagues at the Faculty of Medicine, Padjen eventually decided to merge these quartets into what would soon become I Medici di McGill in 1989 under the baton of Wanda Kaluzny.

Over the past twenty years, Padjen has had the pleasure of seeing 320 musicians of every age and medical specialty pass through the orchestra.  “Recently I received a letter from one student, a really smart guy who had several options to study medicine. He chose McGill so that he would able to play in I Medici,” he tells us. Despite the positive publicity that the orchestra lends to the Faculty of Medicine, I Medici receive no funding from McGill University(*). They are, however, provided with free practice space at the school.

What propels successful doctors and scientists with hectic lifestyles to devote three hours of their week to an amateur orchestra? “For many, this is a return to something they cherish and really enjoy,” explains Padjen. “The orchestra allows musicians to express themselves in spite of having turned away from musical careers.” He observes a work ethic that almost surpasses that of professional musicians. Highly skilled professionals in various fields, the orchestral members are able to apply their focus and discipline to the practice of music. Iwan Edwards, the esteemed conductor of I Medici, concurs that the musicians display exceptional concentration.“They work solidly for two hours and forty-five minutes each week, and I know that the majority of them find time to practice between rehearsals,” he says.

Conductor of the ensemble since 2000, Edwards revels in the opportunity to explore monumental orchestral works with instrumentalists who play purely for the love of music. He acknowledges that the orchestra lacks the experience of a professional ensemble in terms of repertoire, style and technique, but he finds the experience of conducting I Medici greatly rewarding. “I am grateful for the privilege of having such a committed and enthusiastic group of musicians to work with at this stage of my life,” he says. “They are patient as we dissect works and put the pieces together again. They are eager to learn about style and they are supportive of each other. They’re
always ready to ‘push the envelope further’ and they are never complacent.”

As Padjen witnesses the 20th anniversary of his beloved I Medici, he shows no sign of losing energy. Outside of the orchestra, he has delved into the world of music and biology, endlessly fascinated with the link between music and the brain against different cultural backdrops. This interest has spurred a series of lectures for which Padjen invites various specialists in the ever-growing field of music and neurobiology. The thought of life without music is unimaginable to the neurophysiologist/violist, who says, “It’s like asking if you can live without food or air. Music is communication. I’m happy to be alive and to be able to play it.”

I Medici di McGill will perform March 23 and April 20, 2009 (20th anniversary concert)  at Oscar Peterson Hall, Loyola Campus of Concordia University. Visit
http://www.imedici.mcgill.ca