Looking through a list of Juilliard alumni and the varied paths their lives have traveled, it was astonishing to learn how many are involved in the healing arts. We wanted to find out if alumni who made these choices were diverging from their original career goals or merely augmenting their initial intent. In some cases, working with the body seemed a natural extension—a dancer moving into physical or massage therapy when a performing career is no longer viable or desired, for instance. But what about all those who earned additional degrees and became doctors or nurses? Weren’t we always told that science and performing arts are two different sides of the brain and that people are usually blessed with proficiency in only one? The stories of these alumni (and some faculty members) illustrate that “art” has encompassed not only performing but also the special talent that gives one human the desire and ability to heal another.
—Jamée Ard, Director of National Advancement and Alumni Relations
Probing the Performing Arts-Health Care Connection
By MARGARET SHAKESPEARE We asked some of the growing number of Juilliard graduates who work in health care fields—as neuroscientists, teachers in medical schools, physical and massage therapists, anesthesiologists, emergency physicians, otolayrngologists, psychiatrists, and 9/11 counselors—about their paths.
Critical Moments: 7 Alumni Talk About Switching Careers For some Juilliard graduates, there was an “aha” moment at which they decided to pursue another career. For others the movement away from the performing arts was more gradual. These alumni each had diverse reasons for pursuing health care and related sciences; all of them, however, felt that their art enhanced their subsequent professional lives.
Philanthropy Entrepreneur: Extending a Musical Helping Hand For Pre-College alumnus Jourdan Urbach, the intersection of medicine and music was the ability to help other people. Having started the violin at age 2¾, he began organizing concerts for hospital patients when he was 7, and before long the Long Island native had created a nonprofit organization, Children Helping Children, which has raised $4.7 million for global neurological health care over the last 11 years.
