When she isn’t practicing medicine, Dr. Cheryl Hansen, can be found practicing her oboe or English Horn with the Civic Orchestra of Minneapolis. Dr. Hansen found her love of music in seventh-grade, when she played clarinet in the school band. She says she appreciated the music, but wasn’t thrilled about playing the clarinet. So, she tried the oboe and excelled, earning the designations of “all city” and “all state” in high school. Dr. Hansen also learned to play the English Horn, which is much like the oboe, only slightly larger and with a lower sound. She played in the orchestra during college and joined the Civic Orchestra of Minneapolis about nine years ago, after she moved back to the area from Michigan. She practices with the 77- member group once a week during the school year, and they perform about six public concerts per year at locations such as Macalester College in St. Paul and the Lake Harriet Band shell in Minneapolis. Dr. Hansen enjoys practicing and performing with the other musicians. “It’s so unlike my medical life,” she says. “It’s nice to have that balance.” The challenge of playing a wide variety of music with the orchestra is fulfilling, but if she were to choose, Dr. Hansen would likely turn to Russian music.She specifically prefers the music of composers such as Dvorak and Tchaikovsky and others from the 1800s.

“To me, music is another type of beauty in the world and that music is some of my favorite,” she says. Dr. Hansen isn’t the only musician in her family. Her husband, Paul, sings in a choir and their daughter, Stephanie, plays the violin and teaches music. Their son, Loren, also plays oboe and English Horn.  “We play a lot of duets,” Dr. Hansen says. More information about the Civic Orchestra, including the concert schedule, is on their Web site at www.civicorchestrampls.org.

Lisa Baumann
HEALTHVIEWS STAFF WRITER