To “do good differently”, doctors from Saguenay have founded an impressive group of 14 amateur musicians, all health workers, who give concerts for the benefit of various causes. A look at the Doc Show, presented for the first time in Montreal at the Leonardo Da Vinci Center.
We do not know exactly where the idea of the Doc Show emerged: near a coffee machine, in a corridor of the Chicoutimi hospital, over a drink? What we do know is that it was born during a discussion between three somewhat musical doctors, including the pediatrician – and saxophonist – Zoheir Ferdjioui. Since they played music themselves, they thought there must be other talents hidden among their colleagues.
“We sent an email to all the doctors at the hospital,” recalls the pediatrician. More than a dozen responded. And of the 14 who joined the group, 13 are still present. “There is only one person who has changed out of the 14 since the beginning, in 2016”, specifies the Dr Ferdjioui. This is no small feat, especially since three of the members of the group no longer even practice medicine in Saguenay, but in other regions of Quebec.
The Doc Show band saw big from the start: its first concert took place in a 400-seat hall, which is not nothing when you know that the largest hall in Chicoutimi has 800. always been to join a cause, to support it financially and give it visibility. This will be the case again, on April 22, when the show will be presented at the Leonardo Da Vinci Center, in the borough of Saint-Léonard, for the benefit of Autisme Montréal.
Doctors seek to help people throughout the day. With the show, we want to do good differently.
Zoheir Ferdjioui, pediatrician and saxophonist
This good is also a bit for doctors, he admits, since seeing health professionals playing music and having fun on stage “gives a different image of the doctor”. Which can’t hurt, he suggests, when the state of the health care system means that many people have a love-hate relationship with it.
Have fun
Another way to do good, according to members of The Doc Show, is to always keep in mind that viewers should have a good time. “We don’t want people to get bored, so we only take known songs… that we don’t necessarily do as everyone knows them, explains the pediatrician-saxophonist. We want to surprise: we make intros, we change the finales, we sing them in another language. »
PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE DOC SHOW
Doc Show musicians
Without wanting to say too much about the repertoire, Zoheir Ferdjioui nevertheless slips in the names of the Beatles, Jean Leloup, Sinatra and the B-52’s (“to let go of his madness!”). “There is also a sub-group in the group, a quartet that plays classical music, reports the pediatrician. At each concert, there is a 15-minute block devoted to classical music. Or rather to film music with classical orchestrations. “We even bring down a screen to project images of the films from which our music is taken,” he says.
The Dr Ferdjioui and his colleagues know that the few thousand dollars that may be raised for the benefit of Autisme Montréal will not fundamentally change the situation regarding autism. But every little gesture counts, he believes, to draw attention to a cause or “help families who are completely destitute [face à cette condition] “.
The Doc Show is presented on Saturday, April 22 at 7:30 p.m., at the Leonardo Da Vinci Center.