Spotlight: - Craig Marlatt

horn - product stewardship specialist

What’s your connection to healthcare?

I work for a manufacturer of raw materials for medical devices working primarily in safety and sustainability of our product lines.

Why did you choose to pursue your chosen field?

Well, I would say that I tried my hand at research, and after a point I realized you can work with these things in a very theoretical or best-case scenario space, but I found myself thinking more about the reality of it, if you will. The materials you're making at the bench then go out into the world, what happens next? Those are the questions that really interested me the most.

What instrument(s) do you play in PMSO, and how long have you played these instrument(s)?

I play French horn. I've been playing it on and off (mostly on, a couple little breaks) since 5th grade.

Why did you start playing your instrument(s)?

I thought it sounded the coolest. Actually, funny story: in elementary school when they opened up music to people, they let everybody try the different mouthpieces of all the instruments and French horn was actually the worst one for me. So there was maybe a bit of a challenge there. I was actually had a really good flute embouchure, fun trivia. But as I've picked up the [horn] and I played it more and got better at it. I realized there's a lot of variety in the horn parts in the orchestra. You can play very loud, you can play very soft, you can play woodwind quintet, brass quintet, horn quartet, which I really like. There's very rarely a dull moment with a horn in the orchestra!

Why is music important to you?

It has set my life on a course that cannot be overstated. I've met so many great people through music and it's just fun! It's good to have a hobby, you know.

Do you think music and healthcare can complement each other in any way?

Yes, for sure. How much time do we have? Because I can ramble about this for a while. I think it's good to have that personal angle within the sciences.They can feel very detached, very inscrutable. You go to the doctor, it's usually not a fun experience. People talk about, say, bedside manner, and it's good to have some aspect of the humanities in the sciences. I don't know who I'm stealing this quote from, but, “The sciences tell you the how of life and the arts tell you the why of life.” I think that's good to have. I've known people outside of the orchestra who I grew up with, who have been in music and then gone to medical school or been involved in the medical fields outside of the people I grew up with. So it's not just, it's not just unique to Penn, but again, I'm really grateful that I've fallen in with a group with that mindset around here.

Why did you get involved in PMSO?

Well, I was in kind of one of my off periods with horn. My wife and I just got married and moved here. She was a postdoc in the biomedical research building,  working with Simon Hall. In  the summer of 2016 when the orchestra was first founded, they put the call to everybody involved in the medical school, which included her. And she sent me the email and said, “Why don't you go, you know, show up and see if they'll let you hang out?” And they let me hang out and I have been lucky enough to play every concert that the orchestra has done since then. 

What has your experience in PMSO been like so far?

It's great! It's really interesting talking to people here and there about their backgrounds, having all these diverse specialties, both in medicine and medical sciences, but all coming together in this orchestra. It's quite a thing and I look forward to every rehearsal. It's just a nice activity, nice thing to brag about to friends.

What is your favorite piece that you’ve performed with us? Have there been any highlights of playing with the orchestra?

The two that I go to in my head are the Dvorak 9, spring 2019, and then Scheherazade, which was spring 2023. For that one especially, my parents were in the audience for that, which was really special. They hadn't heard me play since at least college, maybe in high school. And I had a bunch of solos, they were really glad they showed up for that. There's one concert we played that I didn't like, I won't say which one it was. It's a really, again, a really wide variety of stuff that we've played, and it's all been very enjoyable. I really like the Rimsky-Korsakov that we're doing this time for sure. 

Why should people come to the concert this year?

The concert this year is like a little more of like a contemporary vibe. The Price is very new. Rachmaninoff is pretty new for orchestra; I mean there's an extended saxophone solo, which is really cool. They're fun pieces, the Rimsky-Korsakov is really bright and energetic, and then the Symphonic Dances go all sorts of crazy places. It's a pretty unique repertoire, but I think it all works with each other.

 Interview with Craig Marlatt prior to the Fall 2024 concert. Published 11/30/2024