New York Philharmonic cellist quits to become paramedic
Contrabass Conversations regular collaborator John Grillo recently sent me a link to this story about Nancy Donaruma, a 59 year old New York Philharmonic cellist who is quitting the orchestra to become a full-time paramedic:
After 31 years in the top-tier orchestra, playing with conductors including Leonard Bernstein, Zubin Mehta and Lorin Maazel, the 59-year-old cellist will go from a hefty six-figure annual income to a “low five-figure” salary.
That’s the price she’s willing to pay to fulfill her lifetime fascination with medicine.
“I’ve always had an interest in how the human body works — and doesn’t,” she said. “And I do like taking care of people.”
Donaruma says her physical skill as a cellist — manual dexterity and quick, supple fingers — “is good for starting IVs and feeling pulses.”
Other overlapping qualities are the ability “to be very focused and do something in an immediate fashion — and not to make any mistakes.”
Read the complete story here.
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This is really interesting and ironic to me, since I am 46, and am quitting my “six-figure” job to earn “low five-figures” as a music teacher – plus I have to go back to college for 3 years to get the undergrad degree. (meaning no income at all).
I’m hearing more often of people making major mid-life career changes. The more I think about it, the more sense it makes, if it can be afforded. It’s easy to see how decades of doing the same thing over and over might burn you out and make you long for something new.