Andreu Gabarrós is the Head of Neurosurgery at the Bellvitge Hospital. In addition to being a renowned national and international specialist in brain surgery, he is a musician. He is the singer, composer, lyricist and keyboardist of Dorigen, a pop-rock band that emerged in 2004 as Denomination of Origin. The group was awarded with Cridem la nit a second Carles Sabater award for the best song in Catalan and has released albums such as Halloween in San Francisco and Smoking room.
It could be said that, throughout his life, Gabarrós has handled the scalpel with one hand and played the keyboard with the other. “My work is my work, and I am passionate about it. It is a very absorbing specialty that requires a lot of dedication. Sometimes you have to operate on a patient all day from nine in the morning to twelve at night and you have to endure physically and mentally until the end. The last part of the turn is usually the most difficult. Music is a hobby that I am also passionate about and to which I dedicate time”. The doctor has worked in recent years on how to combine his two passions and the result has been Simfonia dels Herois, a concert and solidarity musical project that pays homage to the will to overcome patients with brain tumors and aims to raise funds for research .
The album will be presented on May 11 (8 p.m.) in a concert at the Teatre Joventut de l'Hospitalet de Llobregat. It won't have the media echo that Bruce Springsteen's visit to Barcelona has acquired, but the roster of participants and endorsers is first-rate. Figures such as Ramon Mirabet, Gerard Quintana, Estopa, Manu Guix, Marina Rossell, Antonio Orozco or Mago Pop (connected from the US) will take part in the event, which will be conducted by Jordi Hurtado. The Barcelona College of Doctors Orchestra, the Lluïsos de Gràcia Choir and the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park Choir will also participate. The legendary Mark Knopfler has sent a message of support for the project and an invitation so that it can be spread on his social networks.
Simfonia dels Herois sounds like a success, nine songs composed by Gabarrós and performed by Dorigen with the participation, in each of them, of an amateur or professional musician who has undergone surgery for a brain tumor by a neurologist. The notes will bear witness to the link between health and music, and the relationship between doctor and patient. As a climax, the tenth theme, the choral song Simfonia dels Herois, with the participation of all. “Music ends up being a brain function. I like it, I'm passionate about it, I know it and I respect it. When a musician patient tells me that he would like to continue singing or playing if his lesion is in an area in which music is involved, we also take this into account to try to preserve these functions, ”explains the doctor.
Gabarrós intends to send a humanizing message to medical practice. Before each song, each patient-musician will explain his story. "We want to convey to the population that if someone has a brain tumor or injury due to surgery, we have the means to treat it." Some participants, however, have passed away before the concert. Brain cancer still has no cure. Although when Gabarrós began his career, life expectancy was no more than one year and now, he says, "it is five, ten and, exceptionally, more than 15." In this sense, all the proceeds from tickets (22 euros, at Teatrejoventut.cat), row zero and from the project in general will be used for research in biomedicine.
