Gallery of Music
“Non Ti Scordar Di Me” (Do Not Forget Me)
Dame, Dr. Mary Rorro, Chair of AMWA Music & Medicine Cmte. performs on viola in tribute to her Mother Dame Dr. Gilda Rorro. Listen Here.
September 11 Ceremony at Princeton First Aid & Rescue Squad (2023)
Dr. Mary Rorro, chair of the American Medical Women’s Association Music and Medicine community, and a physician at the Department of Veterans Affairs, played the national anthem on her viola and sang her original song “Remember Me, Remember Us” during the September 11 ceremony at Princeton First Aid & Rescue Squad to pay tribute to all who perished on that day and since.
Veteran’s Day 2022
VA News wrote a piece about Dr. Mary Rorro and her musical collaboration with 97 year old WWII Veteran Matteo Giammario, her former Greater Princeton Youth Orchestra conductor.
Listen to “Thank You, Veterans”
The Banner Yet Waves, Memorial Day 2022
“The Banner Yet Waves” is a song Dr. Mary Rorro composed for Memorial Day to honor and pay tribute to fallen soldiers, and also for any time.
“The Banner Yet Waves,” combines elements of The Pledge of Allegiance, The Star-Spangled Banner, and Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. The song commemorates those who served and sacrificed, honoring the flag and country.
Listen to “The Banner Yet Waves”
National Department of Veterans Affairs airing of “The Banner Yet Waves” on the C20 show
Meet the Moment GALA 2022
Dr. Mary Rorro is Chair of the Music and Medicine Committee and the Humanities Committee of the American Medical Women’s Association. She is a physician in the Department of Veterans Affairs, a musician, poet, writer, and songwriter. Her essay “The Greatest Gift” was recently included in the book “Becoming Doctors: 25 Years Later,” edited by Par Bolina, M.D., and a narrative and poem she penned regarding the cicada emergence was published in London’s Royal Entomological Society “Antenna” journal.
Dr. Rorro reconnected with her former Greater Princeton Youth Orchestra conductor, Dr. Matteo Giammario during the COVID-19 pandemic and shared inspirational songs that she composed with him. The songs are meant to provide comfort and inspiration to others during the pandemic and pay tribute to the tremendous efforts of our healthcare providers who answered the call to service and met the moment.
Maestro Giammario, now 96 years old and a World War II veteran, joined forces with his former student by composing the arrangement to Dr. Rorro’s melody and lyrics. Dr. Rorro, former orchestra student and physician caring for veterans and her veteran teacher conductor sought to honor our healthcare heroes through music. Their “Meet the Moment” Suite is comprised of three songs: “Answering the Call, Meet the Moment, and Always Look Toward Tomorrow.”
Their music accompanies a video of images of women healthcare providers including physicians and pre-medical students serving in their roles as women in medicine, demonstrating their courage and compassion in caring for patients during the pandemic and every day. The video also highlights the many talents of our committee members in art, photography, dance and music. Dr. Sydelle Ross, Cait Cavarocchi, Lori Horhor and Qiang Zhang sing on the track along with Dr. Rorro.
Dr. Gloria Bachmann is Director of the Rutgers University Medical School Women’s Health Institute and she and Dr. Rorro mentor student and fellow physicians to harness and share their creative works as Project Directors of the journal. Physicians and students from Dr. Rorro and Dr. Gloria Bachmann’s committees worked and contributed on this collaborative journal between the American Medical Women’s Association and Rutgers University Medical School Women’s Health Institute.
The video will feature photos and journal submissions across the humanities of talented members of the American Medical Women’s Association and Rutgers Women’s Health Institute. These submissions are part of the “Humanities and Healing: An Arts in Medicine Journal” inaugural edition that Drs. Rorro and Gloria Bachmann spearheaded and Lori Horhor, Cait Cavarocchi, Sofia Stitz, Jasmine Mortero, Emilia Milagros Reyes-Beltran and many other students and interns collaborated. The journal will be available at the AMWA Annual Meeting. Drs. Rorro and Giammario ‘s “Meet the Moment” Suite YouTube video and journal project will premiere at the American Medical Women’s Association GALA opening on Friday, March 25 at 8 PM.
Thank you, Veterans!
Originally performed at the National VA COVID in 20 (C20) show on November 9th, 2021:
Artist:
Mary Rorro, D.O.
Chair, AMWA Music and Medicine Committee
Chair, AMWA Humanities Committee
“Meet the Moment”
April 2021
November 2021
Played at the National VA COVID in 20 (C20): Does Pulse Oximetry Discriminate Against Your Patients?
Listen to the recording (begins at 4:30)
Written by:
Mary Rorro, D.O.
Chair, AMWA Music and Medicine Committee
Chair, AMWA Humanities Committees
A collection of songs related to the COVID-19 pandemic intended to deliver important public health messages through music.
This video is dedicated to all our healthcare heroes!
Acknowledgment:
Special thanks and gratitude to Karen Poirier-Brode, M.D. CM, AMWA Artist in Residence, 2020-2021, who contributed her beautiful artistry and video direction. Dr. Poirier-Brode, along with singer and sound engineer Cait Cavarocchi and singer and photo coordinator Lori Horhor, were instrumental to the success of the video, as were talented singers Sydelle Ross, M.D., Vanessa Gehring and Christine Xu. Sincere appreciation to Magda Wojtara for our group collage photo.
Our video features photos contributed by members of the American Medical Women’s Association Music & Medicine community, AMWA Humanities communities, and AMWA and Medical Women’s International Association physicians and students from around the world.
“Get Your Mammogram Telegram”
Music and lyrics by Dr. Mary Rorro
November 2020
Get your mammogram
get your mammogram
please don’t delay
Singing telegram
message is to make
your screen today
Have a healthy plan
see your doctor and
then you can say
you got your mammogram today!
Image of telegram lady created by Lori Horhor, AMWA premed member
Image created by Karen Poirier-Brode, MD, AMWA artist-in-residence
“Courage Is A Woman”
Music and lyrics by Sarah Partridge
On a cool September day in western Oregon,
I roamed a cemetery looking for her grave.
A modest marker bore her name,
And was hidden in the shade.
A shocking contrast to the legacy she’d made.
In a time that is alive only in history,
There is a girl who lives a life like you and me.
But her dreams reach far and wide.
She pursues them all with pride.
A loving doctor is the first life she would lead.
Chorus:
But there was more to come, so much more..
So many lives she lived and saved in scores.
There was love and joy and pain…
But she fought the fight and won the game.
While the politics of health lay in the voting man,
A woman’s say was not enough to make a change.
Her little boy had died in vain.
Empowered women seized the day.
Her coalitions marched ahead and paved the way.
Everybody’s Equal Suffrage League was hers to claim.
Free from cliques and class distinctions, meant for all.
Local grievances were aired.
Granting suffrage was impaired.
But in the end these acts of courage were absolved.
Chorus:
A major barrier to health was inequality.
The instability of life beyond our shores.
Refugees in need of care,
Disease and suffering everywhere.
Her social justice was an answer to the wars.
She lived her life forever challenging society.
Humanitarian for women of the world.
Her civic policies were bold,
A broader vision would unfold..
Nearly a century of change that still unfurls.
Chorus:
Last tag line after “But she fought the fight and won the game
…Tell our children to remember her name.”
Song about Dr. Esther Pohl Lovejoy, commissioned by the American Medical Women’s Association.
Sarah Partridge has also composed an album and tour of musical portraits of Women in STEM titled “Portraits of Wisdom“.
“Physicians Healers”
Dr. Mary C. Rorro (composer)
Richard Walsh (arranger)
June 20, 2019
Doctors of the world, united
leaders of our dream, inspired
shining a bright light, we’re guiding
and transforming
Physicians, Healers
Women, Dreamers
sharing our vision
we can heal the world
Physicians, Healers
Women, Dreamers
sharing our mission
we will heal the world
Commissioned by AMWA for the Centennial Congress of the Medical Women’s International Association.