Meet the orchestra - here are some of our players in Bad Vilbel may 25 2025

Meet the orchestra - Christoph Becker plays violin.
Christoph lives in Westphalia, Germany. In our upcoming concert in Bad Vilbel he will be concert master, and he is also member of the organising committee. First trained as cardiologist, the last few years he has been working as General Practitioner in the province "out of conviction". Why EDO: "For me, European Doctors Orchestra is a great opportunity to make great music and put a little brick in the house of a peaceful Europe."

 

Meet the orchestra - Su Kingsley plays violin.

Su is a retired health care manager and former honorary secretary of the EDO and lives in London, England. She responded to the initial invitation to EDO to play in Bad Vilbel, and is coordinating the organising committee for the concert. Her interests in addition to orchestral playing are chamber music, her 2 grandchildren, working as a volunteer in the music library and keeping fit in the gym.

 

 

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Meet the orchestra - Alastair Watson plays clarinet.
He is a gastroenterologist, living in Norwich, England. He started playing in childhood, but had to give up for many years after becoming a doctor because of incompatibility of oncall rotas and rehearsals, but luckily for us, he took it up again 20 years ago. He also holds the post as Treasurer and Trustee of the EDO.

 

 

Meet the orchestra - Angelika Wieck plays violin.
She is a perinatal psychiatrist, living in Manchester, England, and holds both German and British citizenship. She is member of the organising committee for Bad Vilbel. Her other interests in addition to music are hiking, cycling, reading and politics.

 

Meet the orchestra - Bettina Leube plays violin.
She is member of the organising committee for Bad Vilbel and works as a general practitioner in Bad Neuheim, Germany.
Dr. Bettina Leube spielt Geige im EDO und ist Teil des Organisationsteams für das Konzert in der VILCO in Bad Vilbel am 25. Mai 2025. Sie arbeitet als Fachärztin für Allgemeinmedizin im „Ärztehaus am Park“ in Bad Nauheim.

 

Meet the orchestra - Martina usually plays violin.
She is a versatile musician, and same is her background. Italian and Swiss by background, grew up and trained as an anesthesist in Germany, now working in London, England, with cardiac anesthesia and critical care. She is Honorary Secretary in EDO. Her other interests are hiking in the mountains, good food and keeping in touch with friends across Europe.

 

Meet the orchestra - Malgorzata Sobisz Blachowiak plays violin
Gosia is a specialist in internal medicine and transfusion from Poznan-Poland. She plays in the chamber orchestra Operacja Muzyka and sings in the choir Dominicantes.

 

 

Meet the orchestra - Andy Thurston plays violin.
Andy is a retired urologist and demonstrator to first year medical students at Cambridge University, England. The concert in Bad Vilbel in May will be his 16th EDO concert. For him, EDO is a very special organisation, and he feels immensely privileged to be a small part of it.

 

 

Meet the orchestra - Ed Dorman plays horn.
Ed is an obstetrician and gynaecologist, working in Homerton University Hospital in London, England. As he nears retirement he continues to work in fetal medicine but is mainly occupied with training the next generation of clinicians in abortion care. He took up the horn aged 14 and is looking forward to devoting more time to it in the future.

 

 

Meet the orchestra - Olga Heijtmajer plays viola.
She is a retired child psychiatrist and psychotherapist, living in Enchede, Netherlands. "I am very much concerned about climate and loss of nature; we, as a species, tend to forget what is really important in life on this planet!"

 

 

Meet the orchestra - Armin Schaer plays Tuba, Euphonium and Ophicleide.
He grew up at Lake Constance (Bodensee), has studied economics, medicine and medical management, and works as a pediatrician, neonatologist, and German National Health Insurance Expert in Langenau, Germany.

 

Meet the orchestra - Joanna Chodkowska plays violin.
Asia (as she is called) is a specialist in oral surgery, dentist from Szczecin, Poland. She also is a member of the Polish Doctors' Orchestra. Her other interests are singing, learning foreign languages and travelling.

 

Meet the orchestra - Fanny Dufour plays horn.
She is 31 years old French General Practitioner, living in the Burgundy countryside, France. "I have been playing the French Horn since I was 7 years old. I studied at the Clermont-Ferrand Conservatory and received my diploma in 2016. I taught the French Horn for two years in local music schools there during my medical studies and I played in a professional orchestra "Orchestre des Dômes" at the same time. Since the end of my medical studies, I came back to my birthplace in Burgundy and only play in amateur or semi professional orchestras like doctors orchestras (WDO, EDO, OSMF), local wind and symphonic orchestras."

 

Meet the orchestra - Nicola Weaver plays violin.
Nicola is a retired General Practitioner who spent her career working in Newcastle upon Tyne and London, England, (with special interests in public health and cancer). A violin player since aged 8, she is now happily occupied playing classical and jazz violin, and helping to run the EDO as a trustee and assistant treasurer.
Meet the orchestra - Arne Aarflot plays violin
Arne is a retired General Practitioner from Tønsberg, Norway. He has been playing violin since the age of 12. Having a deep passion for music, his favorites are Bach, Haydn, Puccini, Shostakovich and Miles Davis. Besides music, his main interests are outdoor life, especially to the family cabin on the island of Brøtsø in the Oslo Fiord, his seven grandchildren all living nearby, and travelling to Mexico and other Spanish speaking countries. He is a Trustee of the EDO with special responsibility for EDO website and social media.

 

Meet the orchestra - Femmie Klaassen plays cello.
Femmie works as a youth health care physician in Wageningen, the Netherlands. She has played the cello since the age of eight, and participated in different orchestras ever since. Her other interests are painting, garden works, running, and in summer holidays she loves to hike from hut to hut in the Alps. The Bad Vilbel event will be her first time with the EDO.

Meet the orchestra – Andrew Dickenson plays double bass. 

Andrew has played with EDO since 2011 and enjoyed performing with the orchestra across Europe. He is a Maxillofacial Surgeon, currently an advisor to Welsh Government, working in the fascinating world of healthcare policy. An enthusiastic amateur musician since childhood, inspired from being a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, he now has a particular interest in chamber music and opera. He splits in time between working in Wales and his home in Austria. He especially enjoys EDO trips to Germany as it allows him the opportunity to practice his language skills. Andrew is an EDO Trustee with responsibility for governance and the Friends programme.

 

 

Meet the orchestra - Frances Flinter plays viola.

 

Frances is a clinical geneticist from London, England, with a special interest in inherited kidney diseases, preimplantation genetic testing and Bioethics. Her first instrument was the piano, but when she was 11 and wanted to play in an orchestra, her German grandfather gave her his viola. Frances enjoys walking holidays all over Europe, and while she mainly plays chamber music at home, she loves the opportunities to play symphonic music with EDO. Frances is a trustee of EDO and helping to organise the orchestra’s next trip to London in October 2025.

 

 

Meet the orchestra - Sonia Tiboni plays viola.

Sonia has been playing in the European Doctors Orchestra for over 15 years. She was born in Jersey (Channel Islands) where she started playing the viola at the age of 7 as the school violin classes were fully subscribed! She learnt Suzuki style and soon became a member of the National Children's Orchestra of Great Britain which sparked her love of orchestral residential events. She has both British and Italian citizenship. Sonia was the first in her family to play a musical instrument but now enjoys chamber music at home with her violin playing husband and daughter. Sonia is a paediatric surgeon at Great Ormond Street Hospital, London. When not working or playing music, her happy place is swimming in the sea in Jersey.