As a physician and musician, I blend music into my psychiatric practice with veterans in the New Jersey Veterans Affairs Healthcare System.
As part of the program, veteran volunteers teach vets guitar lessons and I play with them on viola, both in the clinic and community, including at St. Peter’s University in Jersey City, and at Drumthwacket, the New Jersey Governor’s Mansion in Princeton.
I reconnected with my former Greater Princeton Youth Orchestra conductor, Maestro Matteo Giammario, during the pandemic.
I discussed with him that I compose songs with melody and lyrics and that an arrangement was needed of my song “Answering the Call,” which commemorates the tremendous courage and compassion of health-care providers who cared for patients during the pandemic.
Listen to “Answering the Call” here:
Recently, Matteo — a WWII veteran — composed an arrangement of my song “The Banner Yet Waves.”
His father, who was born in Apricena, in the provincia di Foggia, endured much sacrifice as a WWI veteran, as he was shot twice in theater.
“He did not allow it to slow him down and did not live in fear, and died with a bullet still lodged near his spine,” Matteo said.
While discussing his WWII experiences with me during our recording sessions at his home, Matteo often reflected on his sorrow for those who perished in the war, and whose families never were able to see their loved ones again.
“The Banner Yet Waves” enabled him to express that raw emotion.
He interpreted the opening of the song “Allegiance pledged to the flag” as having a rhythm similar to TAPS, and incorporated the TAPS motif into his piano arrangement.
Listen to “The Banner Yet Waves” here:
Playing with Matteo, and with so many veterans, is my calling as I work to usher in a sense of healing and peace.
Let us all remember the tremendous service and sacrifice of our nation’s Veterans and recognize them on Veterans Day and every day.
God bless.
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