Hi, I am a full time practicing board-certified Orthopedic Surgeon, Chief of Orthopedics at Chenango Memorial Hospital, Norwich, New York, and Clinical Assistant Professor of Orthopedics at SUNY Upstate Medical School, in Syracuse. I received my BS in Biology from The Citadel and am a graduate of the Medical University of South Carolina (MD, PhD) and the University of Virginia Orthopedic Surgery Residency. I live in Oneonta, New York and have three children in college.

In addition to my orthopedic career, I began a musical career rather remarkably when I was struck by lightning in 1994, while speaking on a public telephone during a family reunion near Albany. That lightning strike resulted in a Near Death Experience(NDE) and Out of Body Experience(OBE) that would reshape my life. Shortly thereafter, I developed in insatiable desire to hear and to play the piano…even though I had no formal musical training. Around the same time, music started coming to me …first in a dream, some of which ultimately contributed to the original compositions featured on my programs and on my first CD released in 2008. I self-taught from 1995-1997 before starting formal music instruction with Sandra (Campbell) McKane in 1998.

As a result of this unusual introduction to the world of music, I was featured in the New Yorker Magazine article A Bolt from the Blue, by Oliver Sacks MD, as well as in Dr. Sacks’ book Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain. I have given mini-recitals at the Sonata Adult Piano Camp, in Bennington, Vermont, under the direction of Polly Van der Linde, where I played Chopin’s Military Polonaise, op. 40 (in 2002), Chopin’s Fantasie Impromptu (in 2003), Brahms’ Rhapsody, op. 79, no. 2 (in 2005), Chopin’s Scherzo in B flat Minor, op. 31 (in 2006) and an early version of my own Lightning Sonata in 2007. January 29, 2008 marked a significant milestone in my musical career…my public debut at the Goodrich Theater in Oneonta, New York, presented by the Catskill Conservatory in association with the SUNY at Oneonta, assisted by a grant from the NYS Council on the Arts. This performance was recorded live by the BBC-1, Granada Media UK, and German National Television. Besides The New Yorker Magazine, I have been profiled in numerous magazines including, The Week, Financial Times UK, Superconsciousness Magazine, Orthopedics Today, and have had television presentations on Canada’s The Hour, BBC-1’s documentary Imagine, Granada Media’s documentary My Strange Brain, WSKG Expressions, Quarks and Company German Television, PBS’s “The Music Instinct: Science and Song” , and Nova’s “Musical Minds with Dr. Oliver Sacks”. I have also given numerous other public performances.

I recently released my original works in my first CD entitled, “Notes from an Accidental Pianist” through CD Baby.com. I am also working on several other solo piano pieces, a 4-hand/2-piano piece, a symphony based on a Brahms' Variation of a Schumann theme, a concerto, and am also writing a book detailing the origin of my musical experience and examination of my Near Death and Out of Body Experience in an attempt to “marry” mystic and scientific schools of thought. In the future, I look forward to integrating music in the healing of disease states. 

If you would like to nominate yourself or someone you know to be featured on my blog as a Healing Angel, email me at Mary@IntegratedEnergyHealing.com with "Healing Angels" in the subject line.

Blessings,

Mary

www.IntegratedEnergyHealing.com