USU Professor Fosters Passion for Music and Medicine
By Vivian Mason
So, what came first—a love of music or a love of medicine? For Uniformed Services Univerity professor of Neurology Dr. Jonathan Newmark, “Music came first, because my passion for music surfaced very early in life.”
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| [Image Credit: Jonathan Newmark, MD] |
“[Perfecting a piano sonata is like] performing methodical laboratory research, where perhaps the common denominator between the two are skills in precision, discipline, timing, and adaptability,” Newmark says. “I’ve learned how to be both artistic and scientific.” He confidently admits that his life has been a marriage blending these two passions.
Newmark’s descent into music began when he studied piano and viola in third grade and attended the preparatory divisions of the Juilliard School and the Manhattan School of Music in New York.
“Probably around age 10, I started keeping a bound notebook with some musical compositions in it,” Newmark recalls. “Music is not what I do, it’s who I am.”
Today, Newmark counts himself a pianist, violist, and conductor. He received his Master of Music degree in composition in 2015 using post-9/11 GI Bill benefits from the University of Cincinnati College–Conservatory of Music (CCM). He played viola in the Tacoma Symphony for four seasons while stationed at Fort Lewis, Washington, guest-conducted the Independence Sinfonia of Philadelphia, and collaborated with local players in performances for the Friday Morning Music Club of Washington and the Rock Creek Chamber Players. Newmark can still be found playing chamber music full-time two weeks a year at the Chamber Music Conference and Composers’ Forum of the East at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York.
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| Dr. Newmark has spent a lifetime pursuing his passion for music, and brings many of the skills he's learned from that pursuit into the field of medicine and education. [Graphic courtesy of Sofia Echelmeyer, VPE USU] |
One of Newmark’s greatest influences has been his 100-year-old elementary-through-high school viola teacher, who he continues to keep in touch with.
“She introduced me to chamber music. When I was in ninth grade, I organized a string quartet with three eighth grade friends. We remained together for 10 years, even while attending different colleges.”
Newmark’s works have premiered at the Imani Winds Chamber Music Festival, Charlotte New Music Festival, Connecticut Summerfest, Nief-Norf Summer Festival, Art Song Lab, International Trombone Festival, and The Walden School’s Creative Musicians Retreat. His bass clarinet trio, Secret Atop the Bluff, won the Juventas New Music Ensemble score competition at the Boston New Music Festival in 2017. Newmark’s first CD of his own chamber works, Trios and Duos: Chamber Music 1993–2001, features four pieces for a variety of instruments, including oboe, bassoon, horn, piano, and strings.
But with so much passion for music, what could medicine offer Newmark that music couldn’t?
“I’ll tell you what medicine gives me: the discipline of seeing the patient, listening to the patient, and taking his or her story and complaints very seriously, even if only for a short time. Whether that process helps the patient or not, which really isn’t for me to say, definitely makes me a better citizen of the world and a better human being.”
“I think that my music has given me a more human face as a doctor. Music teaches you to listen.”
For more than 25 years, Newmark has been one of the nation’s leading authorities on medical responses to chemical and biological warfare and terrorism, as well as a recognized expert in the medical treatment of chemical warfare casualties. After spending most of his Army career in medical chemical defense and doing stints with the Department of Homeland Security and private consulting firms, Newmark retired as a colonel in the U.S. Army Medical Corps in 2013.
In addition to his various roles including his teaching at USU, Newmark works as senior medical advisor for the Office of Biodefense Research and Surety at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health. Virginia Governor Ralph V. Northam―himself an Army-trained neurologist― also appointed Newmark to a four-year term on the Secure and Resilient Commonwealth Panel to advise the Governor and Legislature on threats to the people of Virginia.
Through an overwhelming amount of roles, Newmark notes that balancing multiple careers has not been easy.
“I’ve had to improvise, and I’ve gotten quite good at multitasking,” Newmark says. Throughout the years, the in-studio recording process of his music has also been challenging (synchronizing schedules, coordinating collaborations, etc.); however, he considers himself fortunate as a composer.
“It has been an honor to have had such wonderful experiences with various musicians who take my music seriously,” he concludes.
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| Dr. Newmark playing as part of a trio of musicians in January 2019. Newmark notes his proficiency in multitasking as a major reason why he is able to balance his work in medicine alongside composing and performing music. |
On the medical side, Newmark notes that his clinic attending has gone entirely virtual thanks to COVID-19.
“I’ve had to learn quickly how to precept residents and evaluate patients either over the phone or via video. I never imagined that I would have been able to diagnose hyperventilation syndrome, for example, over the phone. However, now I’ve done it twice. Our patients seem extremely grateful that they don’t have to travel to the hospital, both for safety and convenience.”
Newmark goes on to add that his pursuit of music has found its way online as well during the COVID-19 pandemic, being part of five virtual performances organized by the Baltimore Composers Forum and the Friday Morning Music Club of Washington and continuing to work as a freelance composer in lieu of being able to make music with others.
“Many of my musical friends are using some of the low-latency online platforms to try to keep their chamber music careers going,” Newmark adds. “But, I haven’t particularly wanted to do that. Luckily, stringing dots on lines doesn’t imperil anyone’s health, and I’ve actually completed three works since the pandemic hit.”
Newmark’s luck in life is not lost on him, either. While few may be able to follow a singular passion so completely, Newmark has been successful in music and medicine, and has been able to find fulfillment in all of his various roles and pursuits, teaching and composing.
When it comes down to it though, Newmark confesses that music is what makes everything else possible for him.
“Music is who I am. It’s probably why I was put on this planet. I’d like to think that if anything I’ve done while here on this Earth survives, it will be if something that I’ve written continues to give pleasure to others after I’m gone. The things that are emotionally very, very close to me all involve music.”
Luckily for Dr. Newmark, it sounds like his passion for music has no plan to temper anytime soon.
