Kalamity K

The Daily Chaos of Kalamity K
2007-07-22 01:07:14 (UTC)

NY Philharmonic cellist answers siren call, hangs up bow to become paramedic

NY Philharmonic cellist answers siren call, hangs up bow
to become paramedic
2 hours, 22 minutes ago

By Verena Dobnik

NEW YORK (AP) - A blaring ambulance siren and a mellow
cello hardly make perfect harmony.

But they're the main themes in the life of Nancy Donaruma,
who is retiring from the New York Philharmonic to become a
full-time paramedic.

After 31 years in the top-tier orchestra, playing with
conductors including Leonard Bernstein, Zubin Mehta and
Lorin Maazel, the 59-year-old cellist will go from a hefty
six-figure annual income to a "low five-figure" salary.

That's the price she's willing to pay to fulfil her
lifetime fascination with medicine.

"I've always had an interest in how the human body works -
and doesn't," she said. "And I do like taking care of
people."

Donaruma says her physical skill as a cellist - manual
dexterity and quick, supple fingers - "is good for
starting IVs and feeling pulses."

Other overlapping qualities are the ability "to be very
focused and do something in an immediate fashion - and not
to make any mistakes.

Donaruma has even practised her medical skills at the
Philharmonic. In one case, a string player fainted onstage
during a concert; Donaruma helped get the man off the
stage and assessed his vital signs while a doctor was
called. She also helped another musician who fell while
walking off the stage.

She'll play her last official concert with America's
oldest orchestra Sept. 14 under conductor John Williams.

The divorced mother of two grown children will still be a
very busy person.

She'll keep playing in chamber music groups and solo
recitals, performing favourite composers like Beethoven
and Brahms. And she'll play for free for her paramedic
friends at Alamo EMS, close to her home in upstate
Poughkeepsie.

Playing with other musicians and being a paramedic both
involve "a lot of teamwork and creativity," she says. "You
have to be very creative in figuring out how to move a
patient. You work with a partner, plus police and
firefighters. Everyone has a job to do."

For the past several years, she juggled Philharmonic
duties with paramedic courses at Dutchess Community
College, while working several EMT shifts a month.

Once, as a student, she was watching a surgeon perform a
hernia procedure, with music piped into the operating
room - a Philharmonic recording.

"So in my peepy little student voice, I said, 'Oh, I'm on
that record.' And the surgeon said, 'What are you doing in
here?"

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/070721/entertainment/mus
ic_siren_call




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