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About
The World Doctors Orchestra (WDO) is an orchestra made up entirely of physicians. It was established as a non-profit organization in 2008 by Prof. Stefan Willich at the Charité University Medical Center in Berlin, Germany with the purpose of combining music with global medical responsibility. The proceeds from every concert session go to selected non-profit medical aid organizations.
Orchestra
Over 1,500 physicians from about 60 nations are registered with the World Doctors Orchestra, many of them with a professional musical background. Three times a year, a selection of about 100 musicians meets for a week of rehearsals and to give benefit concerts in various venues and countries around the world. About one third of the members have had professional music training, the others are amateur musicians. All of the physicians engage in regular musical activity and play both in professional and non-professional orchestras as well as in chamber music ensembles.[citation needed]
Conductor
Founder and conductor of the World Doctors Orchestra is Stefan Willich, director of the Institute for Social Medicine, Epidemiology and Health Economics at the Charité University Medical Center in Berlin and former president of the Berlin Academy of Music Hanns Eisler. Willich studied violin, chamber music, and conducting in Stuttgart and Berlin. In his professional career as physician he became a highly regarded cardiologist and researcher, focusing on cardiovascular disease, prevention, health economics, integrative medicine, as well as music and medicine. He worked for several years at Harvard Medical School in Boston, and was appointed professor and director of the Institute for Social Medicine, Epidemiology and Health Economics at the Charité University Medical Center in Berlin in 1995.