The World Doctors Orchestra (WDO) combines the pleasure of fine music with charity. Two to three times a year, some hundred physicians from over thirty nations exchange their white coats for evening attire and perform a benefit concert for people in need of healthcare.
The proceeds from each concert go to one or two selected non-profit aid organizations. The first dedicated to an international aid organization; the second to a local aid charity situated in the city/country hosting each concert.
Founder and conductor of the WDO is Stefan Willich, director of the Institute for Social Medicine, Epidemiology and Health Economics at the Charité University Medical Center in Berlin, Germany. Willich, who studied violin, chamber music, and conducting in Stuttgart, Berlin, Boston/Tanglewood, and Paris has chosen his fellow musicians from among more than 550 candidates with outstanding musical credentials.
Although all of the physicians share a passion for music, this is not an end in itself. Indeed, the driving force behind the WDO is the conviction that neither national borders nor political or economic interests should limit access to adequate healthcare. With its series of benefit concerts, the WDO wants to raise global awareness that healthcare is a basic human right and a precondition for human development.
On May 4, 2008, in the Berlin Philharmonic Hall, the WDO gave its first concert, performing Donizetti’s Overture to “L’Elisir d’Amore”, Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, and Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9 (“From the New World”), with the internationally renowned violinist, Peter Zazofsky as the soloist. Since then the WDO has repeatedly performed in Berlin Cleveland, Yerevan, Taiwan and Washington. The most recent project led the orchestra to Beijing and Shanghai, invited by the China International Culture Exchange Center and the China International Medical Foundation. With Brahms’ 4th Symphony, Beethoven’s piano concert No. 5 – interpreted by Zou Xiang – and a commission work by Zhou Wenjun the orchestra performed two charity concerts in support of national AIDS/HIV prevention activities, on Dec 4, 2011 in the Beijing National Centre of the Performing Arts and on Dec 5 in the Shanghai Oriental Art Center.
The World Doctors Orchestra is a registered non-profit association in Germany (District Court Berlin-Charlottenburg, VR 27873 B) and the USA, independent of any political, religious, or economic affiliations. It has received both local and international sponsorships for all its concerts to date.