Making Midday Music At JHMI


     Amid hallway conversations and office consultations, the
whirring of high-tech medical equipment and the humming of
cutting-edge research, a little corner of the Hopkins Medical
Institutions gives itself up to a most classical, and unexpected,
midday sound: chamber music.

     Last Tuesday, the JHMI Chamber Music Society performed as
the final event of the Office of Cultural Affairs' busy spring
schedule, filling Hurd Hall with the sounds of Mozart's Quartet
in G, K.387 and Beethoven's Quartet in F Op. 59, No. 1. 

     The Chamber Music Society, which began in 1980 under the
direction of Robert Gerle, brings together faculty, students and
staff of the Medical Institutions who have an interest in playing
in chamber music quartets. Each fall, auditions are held, and,
for the past six years, musical director Richard Field--the BSO's
principal violist--forms about half a dozen groups. After hours
of practice, they perform one or two concerts for their
colleagues, usually during working hours.

     The Medical Institutions schedule a wide range of cultural
activities at East Baltimore throughout the year, including
conversations, concert series, humanities symposia and seminars,
and lectures. In July, the theme of the Office of Cultural
Affairs' summer film series will be the 50th anniversary of the
bombing of Hiroshima.

     For more information about the events of the JHMI Office of
Cultural Affairs, call 955-3363.