Doctors take to stage of Cork City Hall for guide dogs fundraising concert

Two Irish doctors will swap their stethoscopes for sheet music this month when they take to the stage of Cork City Hall with the internationally acclaimed European Doctors Orchestra.

The concert on June 28, a fundraiser for Irish Guide Dogs to help the charity to continue its life-changing services for people with sight loss and families of children with autism, will feature consultant psychiatrist Dr Aoife O’Callaghan and Cork-based GP trainee Dr Caitríona Ní Chathasaigh.

While their medical careers are demanding, both doctors have maintained a lifelong passion for music, and each say performing offers an important creative balance to the pressures of healthcare.

Dublin-based Dr O’Callaghan said the concert represents a homecoming, as she completed much of her musical training at the Cork School of Music. 

Performed at venues across Europe 

Since joining the European Doctors Orchestra in 2019, she has performed in concert halls across Britain, France, and Germany.

“Although the members of the orchestra all speak different languages, we have a shared language in music. This, combined with our backgrounds in medicine, means there is an instant connection,” she said.

“Our jobs are hectic and stressful, and I feel privileged to have performed with such an incredible group as a creative outlet.”

Dr Ní Chathasaigh, a fluent gaeilgeoir, has played violin and piano since she was six years old and percussion since she was 10.

She joined the European Doctors Orchestra in 2022, and performs on a wide variety of instruments, including the timpani, xylophone, and drums.

“As a doctor, work can often take precedence over everything else, so I count myself extremely lucky to be able to take time for myself to play music,” she said.

The orchestra will be joined by internationally acclaimed Irish violinist Mairéad Hickey from Cork as a soloist in Sibelius’s violin concerto.

The programme will also include Wagner’s Entry of the Gods into Valhalla and Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. Tickets for the concert, which will run from 3pm-5pm, from Eventbrite.ie are priced at €25 for the stalls and €35 for the balcony.