Symphony

Longwood Symphony Orchestra Concert

 

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Clockwise from bottom left:  Dr. Lee Helman, Dr. Dan Doody, Maestro Jonathan McPhee, Dr. Martin Malawer, and Dr. Karen Marcus.  Missing from the photo is our fifth honoree, Dr. Michael Ehrich.

 

On Saturday evening, October 7, 2006, the Longwood Symphony Orchestra of Boston opened its 2006-2007 season with a concert benefiting the Reid R Sacco Memorial Cancer Research Fund.   For photos of the event, click HERE.

The musical performance was inspired and spectacular.  At its conclusion, the audience stood in a huge uninterrupted ovation for three returns of conductor McPhee.  The Foundation reception, organized and provided by Heidi Tourkistas and her staff, was attended by more than 250 guests and orchestra members.  They were treated to exquisite savory treats and delectable desserts.

The LSO is an extraordinary organization.  Regarded as the 'orchestra of Boston's medical community' more than half of its musicians are scientists, physicians, nurses and other health care professionals.  We were honored that its board and its director chose to associate its first concert of the 2006-2007 season with Reid and with the work his sacrifices have launched.  All who knew Reid know of how talented a musician he was, and how important music was to him.  The medical charity beneficiary for this concert is the Reid R. Sacco Memorial Cancer Research Fund.

We chose to take this wonderful opportunity to honor five individuals in the field of medicine.  All of our honorees are physicians.  All have had long prominent careers in medicine.   All have made leading-edge contributions in their areas of specialty, within the broader disciplines of surgery, oncology, and radiology.  And perhaps what we found most important among their common qualities was that they each have committed their lives and long productive careers to the care and well-being of critically ill children, adolescents, and young adults.  

We met all of these remarkable men and women through Reid in way or another.  It was Reid who forced our lives to intersect.  As a result, we were able to witness first hand the commitment and sacrifice these men and women have made, and continue to make, so that every day they can provide the very best care possible to all of their patients. 

 

We sought their help for their technical expertise and we fully exploited their brilliance and the emerging brilliance of the team that they mentor.  But we couldn’t help sharing our pain and anxiety with all of them, and all of them responded in ways that revealed inspiring character, kindness, and compassion.  These are physicians who we’ll always remember for the late night and weekend phone calls with them, from wherever they were, to help walk us through the complex and difficult decisions we had to make.  We’ll always remember the moments with each of them when empathy and sensitivity were the medicines we needed most and they were there to provide them.  These are physicians whose voices softened with sadness when we could not share good news about Reid’s progress.  These are physicians whose expressions beamed with the most genuine relief when we were able to share good news about his progress.   And all of these physicians were there to offer us hope and support in even the darkest of time, giving us the energy and will to press on and fight.

 

All of this was important to Reid and to us as a family as we fought Reid’s battle with cancer.  But all of this is just as important to you as well.  For these five physicians now represent the best and brightest of their generation of doctors who are now teaching the best and brightest of the next generation of doctors--the doctors of the future who may someday be treating you, your children, or maybe your grandchildren.  Our honorees and others like them are not simply passing on the technical knowledge they they’ve vastly expanded over their long and productive careers.   They are also passing on to the next generations of doctors the skills and insights of how to innovate and how to explore new possibilities where only impossibility seemed to exist.  And just as importantly, they are passing on, through example and through leadership, how to treat patients and the families of those patients with heart and compassion and hope.

 

Our honorees for the evening were:

 

  • Karen J. Marcus, MD,  Division Chief, Department of Radiation Oncology, Children’s Hospital;  Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology, Harvard Medical School; Staff Radiation Oncologist, Dana Farber Cancer Institute; and member of the Sarcoma Treatment Team at Dana Farber/Brigham & Women’s Cancer Center.  With a focus on improving treatment for patients with pediatric soft tissue sarcomas and pediatric lymphomas, Dr. Marcus’ clinical and research interests include the treatment and study of Hodgkin's Disease, neuroblastoma, bone tumors, pediatric brain tumors, pediatric sarcomas, angiogenesis in pediatric tumors, and the late effects of cancer treatment in children.
  • Daniel P. Doody, MD, Pediatric Surgeon and Co-director, Pediatric Intestinal Rehabilitation Program, Massachusetts General Hospital.  Dr. Doody specializes in neonatal surgical problems, neonatal and adult respiratory failure, extracorporeal transplantation immunology, minimally invasive pediatric surgery, and neuroenteric diseases.  Dr. Doody’s work focuses on restoring nutritional status and improving bowel function in children with a variety of chronic intestinal problems.  He’s engaged in research aimed at understanding development of the enteric nervous system and how abnormal nerve-cell development leads to intestinal dysmotility.
  • Michael Ehrlich, MD, Surgeon-in-Chief of Orthopedics, Rhode Island Hospital and its Hasbro Children's Hospital.  He also serves as the Vincent Zecchino Professor and Chairman of the Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation at Brown Medical School.  Prior to joining RIH, Dr. Ehrlich was at Harvard Medical School and MGH, where he was the Chief of Pediatric Orthopaedics for 18 years.   For nearly two decades, Dr. Ehrlich's work with handicapped children has received national recognition.  His work in transferring muscles and tendons has helped many children walk for the first time, and he is a nationally known expert for clubfoot surgery.
  • Lee J. Helman, MD,  Head, Molecular Oncology Section, Pediatric Oncology Branch, NCI.  He is a Deputy Director and Acting Scientific Director for Clinical Sciences, Center for Cancer Research, NCI.   With particular interest in osteosarcoma, Ewing’s sarcoma, and rhabdomyosarcoma, his research currently focuses on three major themes related to the biology and treatment of pediatric sarcomas: 1.) the role of insulin-like growth factors on the biology of these tumors;  2.) identification of the molecular mechanisms of metastases using animal models of spontaneously metastatic tumors; and 3.) translation of these findings into treatments to improve the outcome of patients with pediatric sarcomas.
  • Martin M. Malawer, MD,  Founder and Director, Washington Hospital Musculoskeletal Tumor Center; Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at Georgetown University; and consultant to the Surgery Branch of the NCI.  He has specialized in the treatment of benign and malignant tumors of bone and soft tissue, including chondrosarcoma, osteosarcoma, Ewing's sarcoma, and soft tissue sarcomas.  An innovator in orthopedic oncology since the mid-1970s, he has developed techniques that reduce the risk of tumor recurrence while maximizing limb function.  Much of his work has been in association with the Department of Pediatric Oncology at the Children’ National Medical Center.

We thank of all our honorees for finding the time in their schedules to be with us that wonderful night. 

 

It is virtually impossible to find the words to express how appropriate this event was for the Foundation.  As many of you now know, Reid had an amazing passion for music.  Just two years ago, he was a continuing ed student in the very same conservatory building where the concert took place, taking a course during his second deferment to Columbia University, while undergoing treatment for the cancer that had returned that summer.  If you come into our home, you’ll see his violin case sitting beside the piano in the living room.  In another room you’ll spot his guitar and amplifier.  Up in the attic is his saxophone, in the very same case that was almost as big as he was when he lugged it around with him in middle school.  On the bookcases are rows of music books, and sheet music, and lesson books for all these instruments, ranging from elementary to advanced, and from Bach to James Taylor.  And on a bookcase near the computer, there is row after row of CDs of all sorts of recorded music and music mixes, all carefully labeled in color-coded jewel cases.  This was the collection of music that Reid loved.  And it is a treasure for us today.

 

As the fall of 2004 approached, Reid knew that the disease was likely to take his life someday.  He held out hope that that day would be years away, and that maybe he would be able to hang on long enough to be saved by a breakthrough that just might knock down his cancer.  At only age 20, he was forced to contemplate the very real possibility of not seeing another summer or another birthday.

 

But he confided in us and in the beautiful young woman he loved that he really wasn’t afraid of dying.  He was steadfastly confident that we’d all be together again someday.  And he was certain that he’d be able to take his memories with him.  But two things bothered him.  One was the pain his that his death would inevitably cause those he left behind.  And one more thing bothered him enormously.  He was worried that he would not be able to take his music with him, and he would miss that.  That’s how much he loved music and that’s how passionate he was about music.

 

In less than two short years, the Reid Sacco Memorial Foundation has become all about trying as hard as we can to prevent what happened to Reid from happening to another adolescent or young adult.  It is all about doing whatever we can to prevent what happened to our family from happening to other parents, siblings and other loved ones of adolescents and young adults with cancer.  It is all about driving toward that breakthrough that finally snaps the spine of the deadly cancers that strike these age groups.  And the Foundation is all about taking something very bad that happened and turning it into something very good.  That evening and its energy and music were undeniable evidence of that transformation, and everyone in that beautiful Jordan Hall that night was a part of that. 

We thank the LSO musicians, its board, its Director and conductor Jonathan McPhee, its President Dr. Lisa Wong, and Dr. Daniela Krause for all forging the link between the LSO and the Foundation and for helping make that night come together.  We were hugely grateful that the LSO had chosen the Reid R Sacco Memorial Foundation to be the beneficiary for the concert.  We were extraordinarily honored to be associated with the LSO’s Healing Art of Music program.

We wish to thank all of our volunteers, without whom there would be no Reid Sacco Memorial Foundation.  These volunteers have continued to work behind the scenes to help the Foundation run each and every one of its fund-raising events as smoothly as possible for the benefit of those like yourselves who’ve taken time out of their busy lives to attend our events and support this Foundation. 

For more information about the LSO, including the music program that night and directions to the New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall, visit the LSO website.  We encourage you to support the LSO by attending their magnificent concerts.