Are you the owner of a slightly rusty set of pipes that hasn't been raised in song since medical school? Does hearing classical
music on your office stereo remind you of a favorite Mozart or Beethoven piece you used to strike up on the piano? Has that
battered guitar case in your basement been urging you to get the band back together?
Photo: Getty Images/Digital Vision/Darren Hopes
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It's never too late for a comeback. Full waiting rooms, burgeoning paperwork, and ever-expanding hospital shifts can be detrimental
to a doctor's free time, but the flexible nature of locum tenens practice can change your tune. And the benefits can be more
than artistic. Playing an instrument can help you make new friends around your contract location, awaken your creative energies,
or even form the basis of a well-rounded retirement. Learn how three physicians have harmonized their musical talents with
locum tenens careers.
STRINGS UNDER THE NORTHERN LIGHTS
Despite the freezing temperatures and far-flung population, music is very much alive in Alaska, thanks to people like Elizabeth
Kohn, MD. She spends six months per year traveling across the Last Frontier for VISTA Staffing Solutions in Salt Lake City,
with stints in Nome, Sitka, Wasilla, Juneau, and smaller locales. A family practitioner who also participates in deliveries,
her other specialty is classical music. 
Photo: Getty Images/Digital Vision/Aaron Graubart
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A violinist since childhood, Dr. Kohn took up the viola about 10 years ago while living in Wasilla to help round out a new
group. "That was a changeover. It's practically the same instrument; you just have to learn another clef," she notes. Not
unlike mastering an in-demand medical specialty to broaden one's career prospects, it has expanded her range: "Violas are
so rare that if you play, you're welcome in any group," she adds.
Dr. Kohn is skilled at finding fellow musicians. During medical school, she played first with the University of Wisconsin
Symphony Orchestra and then with various orchestras in the La Crosse, Wis., area. "Midwest communities are very welcoming
to string players, so I could just walk up and say, 'Hey, I play, would you let me in?'" she says.
Photo: Getty Images/Photographer's Choice RF/Tom Grill
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When offered new locum tenens opportunities, she uses a bit of detective work to gauge the contract's musical potential. "I
usually choose my sites by Googling for orchestras," Dr. Kohn explains. "I narrow them down by making phone calls to musical
instrument shops or any bands or schools. I'll call their music department and ask, 'Do you have a local community orchestra?'
So months in advance, I know there's something there."
This research has helped Dr. Kohn strike musical gold across Alaska. "In larger cities like Juneau, I'll play with an orchestra.
In the tiny places like Nome, I've got a bunch of trio and quartet music," she says. She's even set up a trio at a Nome hospital
to play for patients. And being short an instrument needn't nix the gig. In one group, "we had a bassoon on the cello part,
and we had a clarinet and a flute on the violin part," she recalls. "We pick up instruments everywhere and just fit them into
the music to make a group." Sharing sheet music and playing well-known classical pieces to speed rehearsal allows the show
to go on.
Dr. Kohn's musical pursuits bring her much-needed social contact and eclectic intellectual stimulation while traversing the
Land of the Midnight Sun. "Practicing on my own is boring, but getting together with a group is always a good time. I scrounge
up musicians in small towns, where we play churches and weddings—just pickup groups—and put on little concerts," she says.
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