We are honored to be guided in our activities by our advisory board which includes professional musicians and leading physicians with an interest in music.
Advisory Board Members
Dr. Bruce Jay Gould - Retired Penn Medicine cardiologist and avid supporter of classical music in Philadelphia
Dr. Martin Heyworth - Former Chief of Staff of the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center and currently an Adjunct Professor of Medicine in the University of Pennsylvania.
Mary Javian - Professional double bassist and chair of career studies at The Curtis Institute of Music
Daniel Matsukawa - Principal Bassoonist of the Philadelphia Orchestra
Dr. Peter Vasquez - Assistant professor of clinical obstetrics & gynecology at the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania
Dr. Steven Weinberger - Adjunct Professor of Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine and a member of the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
Michelle Zwi - Director of Orchestra Operations and Touring for the Philadelphia Orchestra
Ethan Pani, MD - Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellow at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
About The Advisory Board Members
Dr. Bruce Jay Gould
Dr. Bruce Gould is a cardiologist and avid supporter of classical music. He graduated with honors from Swarthmore College and received his medical degree from Penn, where he was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha Honors Medical Society. He remained at Penn for a residency in internal medicine, during which he received the Ravdin Best Intern of the Year Award, as well as a fellowship in cardiology. Upon completing his training, he continued to serve as a professor at Penn Medical School. Outside of medicine, Dr. Gould has served as a member of the board of trustees for Swarthmore College, the College of Physicians, Rock School of Dance Education, and the Rotary Club of Philadelphia. He is currently also on the board of trustees at the Curtis Institute of Music.
Dr. Martin Heyworth
A medical graduate of Cambridge University (MA, MD), Dr. Heyworth was the Chief of Staff of the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) from 1999 until 2009. He is currently an Adjunct Professor of Medicine in the University of Pennsylvania (Penn). During the 1980s and early 1990s, Dr. Heyworth pursued research in intestinal immunology, with particular reference to immunological aspects of Giardia infections.
In parallel with his career in academic medicine, Dr. Heyworth has been actively engaged with music. As a child, he had piano lessons and, starting at around the age of 17, has been active in composition. Since retirement from the Philadelphia VAMC in December 2017, music (especially composing) has become Dr. Heyworth’s principal focus. In addition to works for solo piano (some of which he has performed at informal concerts organized by Penn medical students), Dr. Heyworth has written four string quartets, pieces for various instrumental duos, and works for chamber orchestra, as well as a few vocal pieces. During the past four years, his work has generated interest from professional musicians in Philadelphia, a situation reflecting an evolution of Dr. Heyworth’s career from medicine to music.
The first professional engagement with one of Dr. Heyworth’s larger works occurred in November 2015, when the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia rehearsed and recorded a 4-movement Sinfonia (Symphony) that he had written between 2007 and 2015. This rehearsal/recording provided an entrée to the Philadelphia-based Wister Quartet, a professional string quartet that includes current and former members of the Philadelphia Orchestra. In 2017-2018, all four of Dr. Heyworth’s string quartets were sight-read by the Wister Quartet, with the result that one of these quartets has been scheduled for performance in the pending 2019-2020 subscription concert season of the Wister Quartet, at the Academy of Vocal Arts. During the past two years, Dr. Heyworth has written two additional pieces at the request of members of the Wister Quartet; one of these pieces, a short Sinfonia for strings, was performed in Philadelphia in May 2019, as part of a concert given by a youth string ensemble in the Temple University Music Prep program.
Dr. Heyworth’s self-directed education in music included public improvisation on an 18th century harpsichord in the Ashmolean Museum, as a clinical student and clinical lecturer at Oxford in the late 1960s and the 1970s, and has also involved exploration of music manuscripts in the Vienna Nationalbibliothek and in the Budapest Széchenyi Library.
Mary Javian
Ms. Javian has toured and performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra and other world-class ensembles as a double bassist. She has served as principal bass of the IRIS Orchestra and has recorded with the Philadelphia and IRIS orchestras, the Tanglewood Music Center, Network for New Music, Dolce Suono and the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music. She has performed recitals and given master classes in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. Ms. Javian has received fellowships from the Tanglewood Music Center, the National Repertory Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, and the Verbier Festival, where she is now a member of the faculty.
As chair of career studies at Curtis, Ms. Javian has created a dynamic social entrepreneurship curriculum that develops the entrepreneurial and advocacy skills that 21st-century musicians need. Her project-based classes help students create community partnerships that sustain both artistic and social value. Her students have gone on to start their own educational programs, innovative ensembles, and music festivals around the world.
Ms. Javian curated a critically acclaimed concert series for LiveConnections, featuring boundary-crossing collaborations and emphasizing newly commissioned music that blends styles and cultures. She has also curated performances for Intercultural Journeys, an organization that promotes peace and cultural dialogue through music; and works with Curtis students to create concerts for families and new audiences through innovative partnerships with arts organizations across Philadelphia.
Ms. Javian is frequently asked to speak about social entrepreneurship and community-based work, and has contributed to several books on these subjects. She has presented at numerous universities and conservatories; has consulted with organizations such as the Philadelphia Orchestra, the New World Symphony, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and the Savannah Music Festival; and has led workshops for El Sistema programs across the U.S. Ms. Javian currently serves on the boards of two music education nonprofits, Project 440 and the Voces8 Foundation USA.
A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, Ms. Javian studied double bass with Harold Robinson. She joined the Curtis faculty in 2011 and assumed her current position in 2016.
Daniel Matsukawa
Daniel Matsukawa has been principal bassoon of The Philadelphia Orchestra since 2000. He has appeared as soloist with several orchestras, including The Philadelphia Orchestra, the National Symphony, the New York String Orchestra under Alexander Schneider, the Curtis Symphony, the Virginia Symphony, the Auckland (New Zealand) Philharmonic, and the Sapporo Symphony in Japan. Prior to his post with The Philadelphia Orchestra, he served as principal bassoon with the National Symphony in Washington D.C., the St. Louis Symphony, the Virginia Symphony, and the Memphis Symphony.
He has been a recipient of numerous awards and prizes, including a solo concerto debut in Carnegie Hall at the age of 18. He is an active chamber musician and has performed and toured with the Marlboro Festival.
He also conducts regularly and studied conducting privately with Otto Werner Mueller, who was the head of the Conducting Department at the Curtis Institute of Music. He has conducted the Pacific Music Festival every year since 2009, and he made his U.S. professional debut conducting the Virginia Symphony Orchestra. He is currently the Music Director of the Independence Sinfonia.
Born in Argentina to Japanese parents, Mr. Matsukawa moved with his family to New York City at age three. He studied with Harold Goltzer and Bernard Garfield at both The Juilliard School and the Curtis Institute of Music. He is a regular member of the faculties at both the Curtis Institute of Music and Temple University.
Dr. Peter Vasquez
Dr. Peter Vasquez is an assistant professor of clinical obstetrics & gynecology at the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania. After completing medical school at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, he completed residency training at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, and joined the faculty upon graduation. His practice includes the full scope of obstetrics & gynecology, with a special interest and focus in management of normal and high risk pregnancies, contraception and family planning, gynecologic surgery, and transgender health care. In addition, he is actively involved in teaching medical students and residents, and serves as the associate program director for the residency in obstetrics & gynecology.
Dr. Vasquez began playing the flute at the age of 8, which was his primary instrument through high school. He served as principal flutist of the Southern California Young Artists’ Symphony. During and after medical training, he decided to take on the challenge of learning a string instrument, and began taking viola lessons. The viola is now his primary instrument, and in addition to continuing private lessons he performs in local chamber music ensembles and is an annual participant in the Curtis SummerFest chamber music festival. He has been a member of the viola section of the Penn Medicine Symphony Orchestra since the first season.
Dr. Steven Weinberger, MD, MACP, FRCP
Dr. Weinberger is Adjunct Professor of Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine and a member of the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania since 2004. A graduate of Harvard Medical School, he did his residency training in Internal Medicine at the University of California-San Francisco and fellowship training in the Pulmonary Branch of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. For more than 25 years, Dr. Weinberger was a faculty member at Harvard Medical School, where he was Professor of Medicine and Faculty Associate Dean for Medical Education, Executive Director of the Carl J. Shapiro Institute for Education and Research, and Executive Vice Chair of the Department of Medicine at Beth Israel Hospital. From 2004 until 2010 he was Senior Vice President for Medical Education at the American College of Physicians (ACP), the national organization for Internal Medicine, and from 2010 until 2016 served as ACP’s Executive Vice President and CEO, becoming EVP/CEO Emeritus in 2016. He currently studies piano with Charles Abramovic, Professor and Chair of Keyboard Studies at Temple University.
Michelle Zwi
Michelle Zwi is currently the Director of Orchestra Operations and Touring for the Philadelphia Orchestra, and previously held positions as Orchestra Manager for Spoleto Festival USA and Orchestra General Manager for the Haffner Sinfonietta. She was named a Global Leaders Fellow with Orchestra of the Americas, and received multiple Fellowships from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and The New England Conservatory focusing on social and community development via performing arts throughout Latin and North America. Michelle is a member of the League of American Orchestras Emerging Leaders 19-20 cohort.
As an oboist, Michelle has performed and recorded with orchestras across the globe and can be heard on records ranging from Latin-Grammy winning ‘Ex Patria’, to the Final Fantasy XV Original Soundtrack. Michelle received her Masters Degree and Performance Diploma from the New England Conservatory and her Bachelors Degree from the Boston Conservatory, as well as an Executive Certificate in Arts and Culture Strategy from The University of Pennsylvania and National Arts Strategies.
Dr. Ethan Pani
Dr. Ethan Pani, originally from Louisville, KY, is a Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellow at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Ethan completed Internal Medicine residency at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and his medical studies at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania after receiving a Bachelor of Music in Percussion Performance from the Boston Conservatory and a Master of Music from New England Conservatory where he studied with members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He has been a member of Orchestra Iowa, was a two-time fellow of the Tanglewood Music Center, performed on the soundtrack for the Kingdom Hearts video game franchise, and performed on international and domestic tours. While in medical school he worked to bridge the gap between medicine and the arts by fostering partnerships between Penn Med and local arts groups including the Curtis Institute of Music and the Philadelphia Orchestra, and by taking part in the creation of a new medical school course that seeks to promote humanism and professionalism through the study of music. Ethan also has diverse research interests and has published on subjects ranging from recovery after stroke to the surgical management of lung cancer.