Review 2022

A charity concert for the benefit of cancer patients, held at Comödie Dresden on May 7, offereda chance to make musical and scientific discoveries. The audience heard new compositions with sounds from everyday hospital life, an avatar at the piano and well-known pieces on rare instruments. At the same time, the audience enjoyed an insight into the future of cancer surgery. The concert, supported by Stiftung Hochschulmedizin, raised around €10,500 for the guide program for patients at the NCT/UCC.

A cancer diagnosis disrupts the steady rhythm of life from one moment to the next. Fixed components of everyday life - work, plans - suddenly move into the background. At the "Takte gegen Krebs" concert at Comödie Dresden, this experience became the starting point for an artistic, humorous and thoughtful examination of a personal expereince of cancer. "For me, the bad time in the hospital was also a time to pause. Usually I am always dowing things; suddenly I had time to listen," recalles Henry Schneider, musical director of the charity concert and a cancer patient at the National Center for Tumor Diseases Dresden (NCT/UCC). An idea grew - to bring the sounds of the hospital, the acoustic dimension of cancer therapy, onto the stage and transform it into music.

Henry Schneider, a former violist with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and the initiator of the Stelzen Festival near Reuth, brought together musician friends from all over the world. With a passion for experimentation, the artists combined sounds from everyday hospital life with specially composed music and new ideas for sound objects. In addition, well-known pieces by George Frideric Handel and Camille Saint-Saëns were played on rare instruments such as the musical saw and the nyckelharpa.

A musical and scientific voyage of discovery

The musical voyage of discovery also focused on current developments in cancer research. For example, the visitors learned how a data glove not only helps people play the piano, but will also be used in cancer surgery in the future. "In Dresden, we are researching the exciting question of how we can make the skills of experts accessible to other people, with artificial intelligence and very fast, stable Internet," says Prof. Frank Fitzek, head of the German Telecom Chair for Communication Networks at TU Dresden and Spokesman for the Center for Tactile Internet with Human-in-the-Loop (CeTI), a cluster of excellence at TU Dresden. "In future, these developments should also help surgeons to operate on tumors with even greater precision, or to collaborate over long distances using telenedicine applications," adds Prof. Stefanie Speidel, head of the Translational Surgical Oncology department at NCT/UCC Dresden.

Guides for patients

The charity concert raised mponey for the guide program for patients at the NCT/UCC. A cancer diagnosis hits many patients like a storm on the high seas. The guides provide information, have time for personal conversations, and can accompany patients to examinations and doctor's appointments if desired. Two employees of the NCT/UCC Prevention Center and another employee at the NCT/UCC are currently active as guides. In the program´s pilot phase, they accompanied over 20 sarcoma patients who were undergoing particularly complex, interdisciplinary therapy. In the future, the program will be open to all patients at the NCT/UCC. The program is funded by donations and will require further funding to continue and expand in the coming years. The concert raised €10,500 .

We are happy to receive further donations for the guide program, purpose: "Lotse"

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