On Thursday afternoon, an unusual musical event unfolded at Myongji Hospital in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province.
Large hospitals occasionally host charity concerts featuring amateur or professional musicians, but this one took the audience by surprise: Albrecht Mayer, principal oboist of the Berlin Philharmoniker, and Amihai Grosz, the orchestra’s First Principal Violist, took the stage.
The intimate performance offered patients, caregivers and medical staff a rare chance to experience the warmth and expressive range of an ensemble featuring oboe, viola and harpsichord — an combination seldom heard in traditional chamber settings.
The two Berlin Philharmoniker musicians had arrived in Korea just a day earlier to begin the orchestra’s Asian tour. Yet, despite the jet lag, Mayer and Grosz chose to spend their first afternoon performing for the hospital community.
For Mayer, who has been with the Berlin Philharmoniker for almost 34 years, the visit carried personal significance. He became a patient of Myongji Hospital after his decadeslong friendship with two of Korean doctors eventually led him to undergo a hair transplant there.
“The photo of me on the poster behind me was taken before I got a hair transplant,” he said, prompting laughter from the audience filling the hospital lobby.
Mayer underwent a hair transplant of approximately 4,300 grafts in July last year with Dr. Hwang Sung-joo, a leading hair transplant specialist and fellow classical music enthusiast.
Mayer first met Dr. Hwang, the head of Myongji Hospital's Hair Center, through a mutual friend, Dr. Yoo Jung-woo, a cardiothoracic surgeon and a music critic, about 20 years ago.
Mayer admitted that his interest in hair transplants grew in recent years after seeing successful cases among some of his colleagues. Still, he hesitated — until his friend Yoo urged him to go ahead with Dr. Hwang, a leading hair transplant specialist and fellow classical music enthusiast.
“I have friends working in this field whom I completely trust. If I had not had friends working in this very special field, I would not have been convinced,” he told The Korea Herald on Thursday before the concert.
That trust even extended to a follow-up treatment on his forehead shortly after his arrival in Korea on Wednesday, just two days before the orchestra's first performance. By the next morning, he was back in rehearsal for the hospital concert without any discomfort.
Dr. Hwang, who performs roughly 200 procedures a year — many of them for celebrities and musicians — said he feels most rewarded when he sees his patients regain confidence after the treatment.
“I’ve seen many musicians regain joy and confidence after the procedure, and I thought Mayer would, too. And he really did — he looked genuinely happy," the doctor told The Korea Herald.
Maintaining good health and restoring one’s sense of well-being is something Mayer values deeply. In 2011, he established the Albrecht Mayer Foundation to support research and advance therapies for retinal and optic nerve disorders — a cause close to his heart as a musician whose career depends on sight.
Mayer said his family had told him a hair transplant was unnecessary, insisting they loved him just as he was. “But it’s about satisfying the person in the mirror,” he noted. “I think a majority of men are concerned about their hair. It’s about restoring your old self — and I think that’s good.”
While restoring confidence helps him on stage, the greatest energy he receives comes from his audience — whether in a hospital lobby or a grand concert hall.
“As a musician, we live through the positive energy coming from the audience. If I make the people in the audience happy, they will make me happy," he said. "When Dr. Hwang suggested a concert, I happily accepted."
After uplifting an audience of patients and hospital staff, Mayer now begins the tour.
From Friday to Sunday, the Berlin Philharmoniker will make history with its first-ever three-night run in Korea, under the baton of chief conductor Kirill Petrenko.
gypark@heraldcorp.com
