After Carnegie Hall Recital, Northwell Doctor Preps for first Solo Performance

Adedamola Agboola

For James D’Olimpio, stage fright is the only thing that could keep him from following his passion.

“I had played at the Manhasset Public Library, a Northwell talent show and a couple of other shows and it didn’t go too well,”  D’Olimpio said.

But next month, D’Olimpio will step onto the stage at the Jeanne Rimsky Theatre in Port Washington to perform his first ever solo performance.

“I’ve always loved to play the piano but my life situation just didn’t allow me to practice or play like I would like to,” D’Olimpio said.

D’Olimpio, 65, of Manhasset, is the director of Cancer Pain and Symptom Control Service at North Shore University Hospital. He also serves as the director of Supportive Palliative Oncology at the hospital.

What his patients and colleagues may not know about D’Olimpio is that he is deeply passionate about music.

D’Olimpio said he took his first piano lesson when he was six year old. 

Between the ages of nine and 19, D’Olimpio said he would take numerous piano and accordion lessons.

But when he enrolled at Boston University and medical school, he said he didn’t have the time to practice like he would like.

“You really don’t have the time to accommodate these things when you’re in your 30s,” D’Olimpio said. “I was still trying to establish my career but I had the advocation in me.”

He said he didn’t start taking the innate passion and talent seriously till 2005.

Today, D’Olimpio has an established medical career spanning more than 38 years and has worked at Northwell for over 20 years.

“Now I have more time to practice and do some of the other things I want to do,” he said.

D’Olimpio said he now wakes up at 5 a.m. every morning to practice for two to three hours on his piano before heading out to work. 

In 2013, he enrolled at the Bottazzi International Musical Society and School of Music.

There, he met Ana Maria Trenchi Bottazzi, a world-famous pianist, who D’Olimpio said is teaching him not just to be a better pianist but how to practice better. 

“It’s not about how long you play,” D’Olimpio said Bottazzi would tell him. “It’s about how you practice.”

He said he took lessons at the school for two years with Bottazzi before she offered him an opportunity to play a recital at Carnegie Hall.

Bottazzi had played Carnegie Hall 17 times over her career.

“She gives us  the opportunity to play those kinds of events and not any student can do it,” D’Olimpio said. “To have her sit there and teach me is a real honor.”

After his performance at Carnegie Hall, which he said received a standing ovation from the audience, Bottazzi suggested he play a solo show.

D’Olimpio said he was a little apprehensive partly because of stage fright and partly because his previous solos hadn’t gone too well.

But he said he agreed. 

D’Olimpio said he will be playing some jazz music, Bill Evans, Dave Brubeck and what he calls the “American Songbook”

He said he will also be performing some new age George Winston music.

The free concert was organized by the Bottazzi Music Society in conjunction with Northwell Health.

The free concert will hold on Saturday March 26, at the Jeanne Rimsky Theatre Landmark from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Proceeds will be donated to Northwell Cancer Institute.

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