What began as a small group of classmates trying to reconnect with their instruments has grown into a flexible, student-led ensemble and club that now counts more than 20 members and a steady calendar of performances.
The KPSOM Student Orchestra has quickly become one of Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine’s (KPSOM) most distinctive traditions, giving musically trained students a way to sustain their artistry while supporting the school at events ranging from commencement to memorials and even a staff wedding.
“There are so many musicians that go into medicine, and we felt like it was really important that we find a way to preserve that, especially because it is so helpful in the medical field to have those musical thought processes and expression,” said Kathryn Schwarzmann, MD, a member of the KPSOM Class of 2026 and a founding member of the orchestra. “We wanted to create a space where people could be encouraged to keep playing music, where people could be encouraged to share the joy of listening to music and talking about music. We wanted to keep it very open, so that even non-musicians could join; the only requirement is a love of music.”
The orchestra’s origins trace back to 2023, when Kathryn and a few classmates began talking about how much they missed serious music-making. Kathryn, who holds a degree in violin performance from Northwestern University and once served as Director of Education and Community Engagement for the Madison Symphony Orchestra, had been pursuing a professional musical career before pivoting to medicine and psychiatry. She remained convinced that her music background was relevant to clinical work, especially psychiatry’s focus on emotion and narrative.
Around the same time, Kathryn’s scholarly project with faculty member Deepthiman “Deepu” Gowda, MD, MPH, MS, Assistant Dean for Medical Education, focused on music and medicine within the school’s REACH curriculum, became an unlikely incubator for a new student ensemble. To bring that session to life, she recruited fellow students Felice Liang (violin), Andrea Yeung (piano and strings), and cellist Shaheed Muhammad (cello) to form a live chamber group that would perform and record a piece used in a narrative medicine session. Weekly rehearsals convinced the group that KPSOM needed a permanent space for students to play, listen to, and talk about music.
The concept came together: an ensemble-centered group that might one day resemble a traditional orchestra. But as they soon discovered, the small size of KPSOM’s classes, and the uneven distribution of instruments, made it more natural to think in terms of flexible small ensembles rather than a true orchestra. Under Andrea’s leadership in subsequent years, the group has evolved into a broader club, now known as the KPSOM Student Orchestra, that welcomes both performers and non-performing music lovers.
The group is formally organized through the school’s Engage platform, where it currently lists about 19 active members and a total club roster of 22 students, with a core of 10 to 15 regularly involved in performances and planning. That combination of structure and flexibility makes it possible for a busy, rotating cast of medical students to plug in when they can, without the pressure of a schedule.
As the group took shape, members turned to Roland Tang, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor of Clinical Science, to serve as faculty adviser. Dr. Tang had a love of music, and he saw the role as a chance to encourage students to keep music in their lives during training and beyond. The students organize their own performances and events, while Dr. Tang focuses on connecting them with opportunities and reminding them that art can be “restorative” during the most demanding years of medical school, he said.
