Media Contact: Linda Shockley, (619) 534-0361, lshockley@ucsd.edu

Every week, 52 weeks a year (with a few exceptions), for the past nine years, UCSD Music Department professor Bertram (Bert) Turetzky has organized and coordinated the selection of music and musicians, and often created musical arrangements for the Gluck Chamber Music Series at Green Hospital of Scripps Clinic. The concerts are free and open to the public. Green Hospital of Scripps Clinic is located at 10666 North Torrey Pines.

The Wednesday performances begin at 3 p.m., and run almost two hours, with a brief intermission. They are broadcast live to patients’ rooms on closed circuit television, and also recorded and replayed for patients throughout the month. The live performances are showcased in the spacious lobby, where snatches of conversations from the information desk can be heard alongside a moving rendition of George and Ira Gershwin’s I’ve Got A Crush On You or a Mozart sonata.

In addition to Scripps patients and their family and guests, the medical staff also takes pleasure in the offerings. Turetzky says it’s not unusual for doctors and nurses to request information on upcoming programs so that they may schedule breaks accordingly. Other audience members include regulars who drop by solely to hear the music, as well as other musicians.

Distinguished musicians are drawn from within the ranks of UCSD faculty, staff, students and alumni, as well as from the pool of area musicians in search of another performance venue. While chamber music is the series’ primary focus, genres range from jazz, blues and classical, to ragtime. There is classical guitar, solo piano, and theme treats for Christmas and the Fourth of July. Audiences can hear the work of Coltrane, Parker and Gillespie one week, a Koto ensemble on another week, Beethoven and Mozart, the American ‘songbook,’ as well as swing, bebop and beyond.

Series curator Turetzky explains the criteria he uses for creating the series.

"Of course my primary concern is for the patients," he said. "These are people who are healing, and I try to select music that will complement that healing process. We try to avoid anything that is too loud, and we stay away from rock. I’ll only enlist top musicians. Luckily we live in such a strong and talented musical community that we can pull in musicians from our campus, the club scene, and the La Jolla Symphony. Putting it all together takes a lot of work but I wake up very early in the morning."

The series is made possible by an endowment fund established by Muriel Gluck and her late husband Maxwell H. Gluck.

Although arts patron and education supporter Muriel Gluck prefers to keep a low profile about her philanthropy, she recently reflected upon her continued commitment to the series.

"I endowed the series for two reasons. I thought it would be a nice offering for patients and for those visiting friends and family in the hospital," said Gluck. "Music provides an opportunity for helping to take your mind off the anxiety, even pain, of being in a hospital. Even though the series is broadcast live to the patients’ rooms, I’ve seen people come to the lobby in wheelchairs, pulling along whatever medical apparatus they may be attached to. It provides a change of scene. It’s just one of those nice gestures that I hope brings a little cheer.

"Equally important," Gluck added, "was my interest in creating opportunities for UCSD music students. I especially wanted to support these young musicians who need audiences, more occasions to perform, and better opportunities for obtaining name recognition for their work."

Bertram Turetzky has been a popular and innovative member of the UCSD Music Department since 1968. He is a world renowned solo performer on the contrabass whose recordings of new works alone number more than 160, making him the most recorded contrabass soloist in America. Turetzky’s performances number more than 700, in addition to more than 100 annual concerts he has offered for the Young Audience/Education in the Schools program. He is a composer, scholar and author.