80 members of the Texas Medical Center Orchestra, a group of doctors, nurses, medical students, scientists, dentists, therapists and researchers who’ve banded together to pursue their love of music and share it. They often arrive at weekly practices dressed in scrubs, and their orchestra is a much-needed creative outlet.
Bellaire resident Libi Lebel founded the orchestra when she moved from Manhattan to Houston with an ex who worked in medicine. Lebel has bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Julliard and studied piano performance and conducting at Westminster Choir College. Up east, she had seen the Philadelphia Doctors Chamber Orchestra perform at Princeton, and she loved the concept.
“Music is my passion,” Lebel says. “It’s what I do and who I am.”
After arriving in Houston, Lebel spoke to the dean of the McGovern Medical School at UTHealth and told him she wanted to start an orchestra. “Before I knew it, I had all these doctors emailing me who wanted to audition,” she says. “They’re physicians by day, musicians by night.”