Singing in the surgery

JORDAN MOSHE

Titled Voices That Care, the project brought together 30 GPs, each of them contributing to a music video uploaded to YouTube and Facebook on Sunday, 31 May. To date, the video has had almost 40 000 views.

The concept was conceived by Dr Daniel Israel and sponsored by Dis-Chem after he’d seen similar videos online in recent weeks. “I sensed the stress amongst GPs, and wanted to create an outlet through which we could express our goodwill and encourage patients in a creative way,” Israel told the SA Jewish Report.

“I wasn’t sure how we’d surmount the technical obstacles of putting it all together or how we’d make individual recordings. I’d also never heard any of these doctors sing, and wasn’t sure how we’d vet them.”

Nonetheless, he posed the idea to fellow doctors and the response was resoundingly positive. About 30 practitioners were eager to put their vocal talents to use. Israel enlisted the help of music production legend Bryan Schimmel, Waverley shul choirmaster Joel Sacher, and musician Johnny Birin to make the idea a reality.

Combining their skills, the production team wrote appropriate musical arrangements and collated the recordings made by participating practitioners.

The chosen song was written in 1991 for American soldiers serving in the war in Iraq, says Schimmel. “Joel auditioned the doctors, and sent me a list of their names and a description of their voices.”

“Changing some of the original words, I created a new arrangement, and we sent the doctors their parts to practice.”

Each GP then had to record themselves at their practice performing their part.

Schimmel says the project is unique in that it features the doctors in their space. “Many other videos acknowledge medical professionals for what they do,” he says. “This one shows them expressing themselves in their own voice.”

A project like this is important, Schimmel says. “At this time, people are evaluating what matters. Few of the 30 who participated really knew each other before this, and they said it created a sense of unity and reduced stress at this difficult time. It was therapy for them, and they helped others.”

The doctors displayed genuine sentiment throughout the project, says Sacher.

“These are 30 of the warmest, most caring people you could meet,” he says. “During those interviews and after, each personality came across as a special soul that cares deeply for others and is constantly moved to devote him/herself to the well-being of the public.”

He says thousands have expressed on social media how moved they were after viewing the video, even more so if they recognised the doctors they know. “For me, the video is simply overwhelming because I know that the sentiment of every single participant is 100% genuine,” he says.

Participating GP, Dr Michael Setzer, says the project was an uplifting opportunity to reach out to doctors and patients alike.

“People are facing tremendous challenges at the moment,” he says. “They’re strained, they’re down and deflated. Dr Israel saw an opportunity to uplift people in a format that reached as many as possible, bringing doctors from a variety of backgrounds together to do something unique.”

This wasn’t the sort of project Setzer thought he’d ever participate in. “I sing zemiros [hymns] at the Shabbos table,” he laughs. “That’s the extent of it. To film myself singing like this is another matter.”

The team agrees that the project underscores the need for unity at a time like this.

“COVID-19 isn’t a medical condition,” says Setzer. “I see a spiritual disease with a medical outcome. The almighty has sent us a message: the human race is behaving badly, and we need to learn to treat one another with dignity, love, and respect. That’s the message of this video.

“Because of this new reality, people are trying much harder to be nicer to each other. Projects like this bring about collaboration, something the world really needs.”