Rheumatologist, Jazz Guitarist Dr. Alan Schenk Connects with Patients, Colleagues by Playing Music

Dr. Schenk at the 2015 Arthritis
Foundation Jingle Bell Run.

By then an accomplished acoustic jazz guitarist, Dr. Schenk was first introduced to the mandolin when he met his wife, Nancy.

“Her sister loaned me her mandolin one night, and I stayed up until 2 a.m., learning to play Yankee Doodle,” he says with a laugh. “I soon discovered the jazz mandolin artistry of David Grisman and began a lifelong love affair with the instrument.”

For 18 years, Dr. Schenk and his bandmates regularly played the Laguna Art Festivals, library concerts, street fairs, the occasional wedding and private parties as an ensemble of up to five pieces, including violin, percussion, mandolin, guitar and acoustic bass.

“Music is a great stress reliever and provides balance in my life,” Dr. Schenk says. “It requires intense focus and creativity, and when I perform, it shuts out all of the demands of the medical world.”

In addition to playing at festivals, Dr. Schenk and his musical group have had an 18-year run at Saddleback Memorial Medical Center’s annual medical staff meetings in Laguna Hills, Calif., where Dr. Schenk served for 18 years as director of the hospital’s Osteoporosis Clinic and for 20 years as director of Continuing Medical Education. He has also performed at hospital events with other ensembles, including a jazz vocal quintet, and an 18-piece jazz orchestra. One of his most recent, and fondest engagements, was a solo performance in suburban Portland, to honor his father’s 91st birthday.

Dr. Schenk (with guitar) and the SwingSet Ensemble at the Saddleback Memorial Medical Center.

“I’ve asked my grown daughter to help me identify some more contemporary music to perform,” Dr. Schenk says with a smile. “To date, my most contemporary tunes are Beatles songs.”

Somewhere down the line, perhaps after his retirement, Schenk also hopes to devote some time to mastering the art of home recording.

“I definitely believe that I have an album in me,” he says. “Yet I never seem to have enough time, even on weekends, to devote to recording my music.”

Music & Medicine

All too familiar with the uplifting effects of music, Dr. Schenk also performs the occasional short concert for his infusion room patients, who are quick to take out their smartphones to snap a picture or record a short video.

“I think when patients see me perform, it decreases the distance between us and they are able to see me as a person beyond the white coat,” Dr. Schenk says. “And I routinely tell patients who skip their medications that improvising is a part of jazz, not medicine!”