Physician finds ‘second life’ in music

By Cynthia McMullen

Most people don't remember COVID-19 fondly. But for Perry G. Fine, M.D., pandemic parameters inspired creativity.

An anesthesiology professor at the University of Utah School of Medicine, Fine also is on faculty with the university's Pain Research Center and is a Pain Management Center attending physician..

In what might seem a departure from pain therapy - but it isn't, music can be medicine! - he also was instrumental in organizing the Utah Medical Orchestra, for which he serves as faculty advisor.

The music

"What has allowed me to thrive and feel fortunate," said Fine, who earned his M.D. from the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine in 1981, "is that out of COVID came a lot of difficulties ... but it allowed me to create a second life to compose, advise the UMO and work with people in the arts as well as health professionals who have a secret life as musicians."

Music - playing cello, then guitar, then composing - has always been vital to Fine. Career-wise, however, a variety of health-profession experiences led Fine to medicine. After applying to medical school at VCU, he interviewed with the late Susan J. Mellette, M.D. "She was a very influential person in my life."

A proud alum of the "Miracle College of Virginia," as Fine says, "I had a wonderful class. It just seemed to have a vibe about it."

But music was never far from his thoughts. He and classmates formed the Cyanotic Blues Band. The 1979 and 1980 class Take Offs were Fine's "first major theatrical productions," he says, laughing.

Fast forward to 1985. Fine signed on with the University of Utah, where he has focused on patients with complicated, debilitating chronic pain due to disease. He continues to share Mellette's interest not only in finding cures but in improving the quality of life, no matter the prognosis.

But sidelined from clinical work with the advent of COVID, Fine found time for composing. Among his many accomplishments: completing and producing a musical, "FATE?"; writing his first choral work, a symphony, "Silent Night Suite"; and narrating Saint-Saën's "Carnival of the Animals" for UMO before returning to his seat to play cello.

The orchestra now has morphed into a major wellness initiative. A research arm has completed a study demonstrating the positive professional identity value that orchestral participation brings to UMO musicians' lives.

"With burnout a serious problem in health professionals," Fine says, "this is a timely and relevant finding."

Next up: an assessment tool to survey mood and the sense of self and professionalism.

Fine's family, he says - including wife Susan, their two daughters and three grandchildren - have always supported his music. For someone whose bucket list consists of "getting all the music ideas in my head out," that's the best kind of backup.

This story was published in the spring 2026 issue of 12th & Marshall. You can find the current and past issues online.