Second Annual TUSM Winter Talent Show

As a hectic semester wrapped up, Temple University School of Medicine (TUSM) students and faculty were treated to an art show and concert—all featuring "local celebrities."

The second annual TUSM Winter Talent Show, held in the MERB on Dec. 12, entertained hundreds of medical students and their mentors with their "off-label" talents.

More than two dozen musicians, artists, dancers, and poets from the TUSM classes of 2017 and 2018 participated. Highlights ranged from cha-cha and jive dancing by Giovanni Rivera and Nicolette Brycki to an original song written and performed by singer and ukulele player Danica Palacio to colorful linoleum prints by Sarah Smith-Benjamin.

The event, sponsored by the TUSM Arts Group (TAG), was designed to showcase students’ artistic expression, according to TAG Treasurer Mike Tzeng. He took part in the performance, dueting with Simona Tsipan as well as playing guitar and singing solo.

"Doctors are multitalented!" Tzeng declares.

In addition to organizing on-campus events, TAG aims to spread the arts beyond TUSM, promoting music and art within healthcare settings throughout the North Philadelphia community.

Events like the talent show provide an outlet for artistically inclined students, and a way for "faculty and students to see them in a different light," explains TAG President Sarah Miller. She adds that the lunchtime program offered a "really great break" for stressed-out students.

Pianist Nathan Jon Cox, one of the TAG music co-coordinators, illustrated this last point most eloquently. He introduced his selection of excerpts from Franz Liszt’s Un Sospiro: "In Italian, 'sospiro' means sigh. I know you'd probably rather be at the library now studying, but take a deep breath, relax, and enjoy. It will all be okay."