Learn about Mary Maldarelli, a UMMC pulmonary and critical care medicine fellow who plays the organ during UMB’s Founders Week Staff Luncheon, in the latest issue of “CATALYST.”
When Mary Maldarelli, MD, was 14, she fell in love.
But unlike up-and-down teenage romances that often end as quickly as they begin, Maldarelli’s passion lasted. In fact, the object of her affection continues to impact her life and career.
The conduit for that transformative experience?
The pipe organ.
The University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) 2019 graduate explained, “I had a piano teacher who was also an organist, and she got me into a camp called Pipe Organ Encounters. It’s where piano students can get to know the organ for the first time.”
Her interest in the instrument wasn’t entirely new. She wanted to try the organ after a visit to the National Cathedral at age 8, when an organist played and Maldarelli felt the floor shake.
But it was during that camp that, as she explained, “It stuck. It stuck really hard, because suddenly, I had an instrument that let me do anything I wanted, as loud as I wanted. When you’re 14, that is the greatest thing.”
Today, Maldarelli is a pulmonary and critical care medicine fellow at the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) — and because her affection for the pipe organ truly “stuck,” she continues to perform. As an organist, she plays at Westminster Hall, a historic church on the University of Maryland, Baltimore’s (UMB) campus just a few blocks away from UMMC, including at UMB’s Founders Week Staff Luncheon in October. She also plays piano in the central atrium of the medical center.
Driven to Pursue Medicine
That juxtaposition of music performance with a medical career might seem unique to some, but Maldarelli said she knew as a teenager that she wanted to pursue both subjects in college.
“Infectious disease was my first love,” she said when discussing how her interest in medicine began. “I was always driven to be a doctor because I wanted to help people and because I love science.”
She said a plague exhibit at a museum was formative, as was the time she found her father’s copy of “Principles and Practices of Infectious Disease.” Maldarelli remembers sitting on the floor of her home and devouring the textbook’s coverage of pathogens and their impact on different systems of the body. After she became interested in hemorrhagic fevers, Maldarelli’s mother suggested reading “Demon in the Freezer,” a bestseller about smallpox, saying it would be educational from a public health perspective.
Maldarelli’s parents were on hand with guidance when she decided to pursue both music and science.
“My dad has an MD and PhD, and my mom has a PhD, so they both knew how to get through all the training I would need,” she said, adding that her parents fully supported her effort to pursue both passions. “We knew it was going to be hard, but we designed a career plan — go to med school, go to music school — with the mindset of ‘we’ll make all those things work.’ ”
True to that plan, Maldarelli attended Johns Hopkins University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in earth and planetary science while also studying organ at the Johns Hopkins Peabody Institute. She went on to gain a master’s in music at Catholic University of America before attending UMSOM.
She says her career path as a physician has been shaped in part by her experience as a musician.
Read more about Mary Maldarelli here.
You can read the Fall 2024 issue of CATALYST magazine, which highlights the School of Dentistry's efforts to provide dentures to seniors through a grant program; School of Pharmacy recent graduate Alena Abraham's podcast dedicated to supporting the blind and visually impaired community; Taofeek K. Owonikoko, MD, PhD, the new executive director of the University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center; and much, much more!