Medical correspondent releases debut album
Florence Lockheart
Wednesday, May 24, 2023
Robert Burns Arnot’s newly recorded works have a strong link with his native Vermont as well as with his parallel career as a doctor specialising in internal medicine
Medical correspondent, humanitarian aid worker and author Robert Burns Arnot has this month turned his hand to composing, with his debut disc The Cottonbrook Suite. Performed by the Czech Studio Orchestra led by conductor Jan Chalupecky, the album features three new works by Arnot and is released this month.
Arnot’s newly recorded works have a strong link with the landscape of his native Vermont as well as with his parallel career as a doctor specialising in internal medicine. With experience including a period as chief medical correspondent for NBC/Dateline, the Today Show, CBS Evening News and CBS This Morning, Arnot has authored books on health and nutrition and worked with humanitarian aid organizations focusing on conflicts in areas including Rwanda, Sudan, Somalia and now Ukraine.
Arnot said: ‘I’m blessed by such varying and hauntingly beautiful terrain in our home town of Stowe, Vermont, from which to compose… Cotton Brook is a gruelling 9-mile mountain bike trail which passes through ancient farmyards and orchards Our town is also home to the Von Trappe family of Sound of Music fame, a family which continues to inspire us to this day. Since Cottonbrook, I’ve written three more symphonies and plan to record them beginning this spring.’
Having studied the trumpet from the age of 12 and attended the New England Conservatory of Music, Arnot turned to composing during the pandemic, resuming study at the Conservatory and taking over 40 music composition and theory courses. At the time Arnot divided his attention between composition and Massachusetts General Hospital’s COVID Urgent Response project. Now, Arnot fits his composing into a rigorous schedule of ski mountaineering training and work with his global non-profit organization Health Tech Without Borders which uses digital tools and technology to provide access to health resources during crisis and conflict
Arnot said: ‘Throughout my life in medicine, humanitarianism and as an author of 15 books, I’ve always sought to inspire. Classical music offers the greatest opportunity of all to inspire the lives of others.’
