For sixty centuries, medicine and music have come together, like a mixture of tinctures, to soothe and heal people, with roots tracking back to prehistoric times.
As early as 4000 BCE, priest-physicians in Egypt and Mesopotamia called music “physic for the soul.” Ancient Chinese culture intrinsically linked the two fields, medicine and music. By the 6th century BCE, historical figures like Pythagoras, Plato, and Aristotle formalized music’s clinical application.
Modern neuroscience today utilizes advanced brain-imaging and cardiovascular studies to prove what our ancestors always knew: music actively lowers blood pressure, stabilizes heart rates, and triggers biochemical changes necessary for deep healing.
World Doctors Orchestra
Today, we are blessed not only with medicine and music, the sound, but with physicians and surgeons of various subspecialties, who are polymaths, music virtuosos in concerts at night, physician-surgeons providing medical care or doing surgery during the day.
The 100-men-and-women physician-musician ensemble is popularly known as the World Doctors Orchestra (WDO), an independent non-profit humanitarian association, which made its debut in May 2008, with an inaugural concert in the Berlin Philharmonie.
Their membership includes 2000 physicians from 60 countries around the world. One hundred of them perform as a team at each concert they do. All proceeds are donated to local charities in the country and city where they perform. As of 2025, WDO has donated more than 2 million euros ($2.321 million US dollars) to medical charities. It has performed 48 concert sessions around the world.
Proud of WDO
My family and I were privileged to attend the Chicago 2026 Charity Concert of the World Doctors Orchestra at the Wentz Concert Hall in Naperville, Illinois, on September 11, 2026, as the United States remembered the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers in New York and honored the heroes in that soul-devastating national catastrophe.
As physicians ourselves, my wife, Farida, daughter Sheillah, her husband Tony, and our son, Felipe, Jr., together with some of our close friends, were all deeply proud of our 100 colleagues performing marvelously like professional musicians at this concert and its conductor, Stepan Willich, who himself is also a physician.
They rendered each symphony with flawless and magnificent precision, truly an architectural masterpiece for each piece. Yes, physicians and surgeons, displaying their musical talent with synchrony and perfection.
Among the symphonies they played were Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Russian Easter Overture, Aaron Copland’s Lincoln Portrait, Florence Price Concert Overture No. 2, and Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances, op. 45.
Closing my eyes once in a while during the concert, I felt as though I was listening to the Royal Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, the Berlin Philharmonic, or the Vienna Philharmonic, with my novice, uninitiated ears.
A collective genius
The amazing, unparalleled ability of the World Doctors Orchestra to blend dozens of unique instrumental voices into a single breathtaking harmonious soul is the pinnacle of human collaboration, where individual virtuosity surrenders to collective genius, instantly transporting the listener into a world of profound emotion, timeless beauty, and cognitive clarity and psychological wonders.
Each of the 100 physicians pays WDO 400 euros ($465 US dollars) as a session fee, uses their own funds for air travel, hotel, and other expenses, bring their own musical instrument, except for the large ones, like the cello, bass, and tuba, which WDO rents for each concert. Indeed, a rare breed of compassionate men and women who care for and inspire their fellowmen and make this world healthier, happier, and more wonderful.
Although all of the physicians share a passion for music, the driving force behind WDO is the conviction that neither national borders nor political or economic interests should limit access to adequate healthcare. With its series of charity concerts, WDO strives to raise global awareness that healthcare is a basic human right and a precondition for human development. An impressive conviction and goal for the betterment of mankind.
We were particularly proud of my 56-year-old nephew, Joel Chua Ang, MD, a Family Medicine specialist from Washington, DC, who is a founding member of WDO and a violinist with this humanitarian group. The Chicago concert was his 39th WDO concert. They will perform in Manila at the Solaire Casino-Hotel on February 27, 2027, and proceed to Hong Kong with the Asian Doctors Orchestra Concert (an offshoot of WDO) on May 2nd, then to Venice and Verona, Italy, for the 56th Concert session, October 8-12, 2027.
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The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the Asian Journal, its management, editorial board and staff.
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Philip S. Chua, MD, FACS, FPCS, a Cardiac Surgeon Emeritus based in Northwest Indiana and Las Vegas, Nevada, is an international medical lecturer/author, Health Advocate, newspaper columnist, and Chairman of the Filipino United Network-USA, a 501(c)3 humanitarian foundation in the United States. He was a decorated recipient of the Indiana Sagamore of the Wabash Award in 1995, conferred by then Indiana Governor, later Senator, and then presidential candidate, Evan Bayh. Other Sagamore past awardees include President Harry Truman, President George HW Bush, Muhammad Ali, and astronaut Gus Grissom (Wikipedia). Sites: FUN8888.com, Today.SPSAtoday.com, and philipSchua.com – scalpelpen@gmail.com
Philip S. Chua, MD, FACS, FPCS, Cardiac Surgeon Emeritus in Northwest Indiana and chairman of cardiac surgery from 1997 to 2010 at Cebu Doctors University Hospital, where he holds the title of Physician Emeritus in Surgery, is based in Las Vegas, Nevada. He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, the Philippine College of Surgeons, and the Denton A. Cooley Cardiovascular Surgical Society. He is the chairman of the Filipino United Network – USA, a 501(c)(3) humanitarian foundation in the United States.
