Piano-playing dentist brings notes of comfort to cancer patients at URMC

Dr. Luis Alberto Mendez, a resident at the Eastman Institute for Oral Health, sits at the piano in the lobby of the James P. Wilmot Cancer Center in Rochester. He begins to play. The music flows out, working a kind of magic.

For a moment or two, patients pause and listen. For a moment, they are rescued from their worries. For a moment, they forget cancer’s torments. For a moment, they have a kind of peace.

When we think of treatments for cancer, we think of surgery, of radiation, of chemotherapy. But maybe, there’s a place for music. It doesn’t cure, but it can bring comfort, and comfort counts.

“Your mind is looking for soothing things,” says Harley Bowman of Rochester, who has firsthand experience with cancer and with the power of music.

Harley, 73, was at Wilmot, which is part of the University of Rochester Medical Center, in August of 2022 for consultation with a radiation oncologist following his surgery for cancer. He was waiting in the lobby for his wife, Joan, who was at the Pluta Cancer Center for consultation related to her cancer. (Both Bowmans are still being treated for the disease.)

“It was a terrifying experience,” Harley says, recalling his emotions on that day in August. To add to the gloom, he looked out the center’s window and saw a tree prematurely dropping its leaves.

Then he heard the music. “It was beautiful, a blessing,” he says.

Harley got up and stood near the piano. He found himself crying, as were two other people standing near him.

During his later visits to Wilmot, Harley heard Luis play often, and he learned more about what brought the young dentist to Rochester and to that piano.

Born in Mexico, Luis, who is 33, began playing the piano when he was 15. He thought of becoming a musician, but, instead, went on to earn his dentistry degree in Mexico.

In 2020, he came to the Eastman Institute, which is also on the campus of the medical center, for advanced training. Along with him were his wife, Maricela, and their two young children, Natalia and Mauricio.

Mendez sold his piano when he left Mexico; It would have been too costly to move.

But he does play at his church, and, when he came upon the piano in the Wilmot lobby, he began playing there, as well.

The reaction to his music at the cancer center surprised Mendez.

“People would tell me, ‘I needed that, thank you,’” he says. “It disconnects people from their current situation. I could tell it gives people a sense of hope. It is a little like a ministry.”

Sometimes, as part of his newfound ministry, Luis stops playing and just listens to the strangers who had been listening to him. They tell him their worries. Sometimes, too, they share their joy, news of being declared cancer-free.

Though he loves the Wilmot piano, Luis found himself missing a piano of his own.

Enter Harley Bowman. “Do you want a piano?” he asked Luis one day. He went on to explain that he and Joan had a friend, Lucille Muench, who was looking to give a piano away, as she was moving to Virginia.

The piano had been in Muench’s family for three generations, so she wanted to make sure it would be cherished by its new owner.

Thus, Luis found himself playing the piano in Muench’s home. “It was kind of an audition,” he says. “I was a little nervous.”

He passed with flying colors.

Harley hired movers to bring the piano to Luis.

“I was praying for a piano,” Luis says. “I believe in God, so it was an answer to a prayer. But it showed me, too, hope in humanity.”

Luis is scheduled to finish his residency in June. He wants to join a dental practice in Rochester, as he and his family like it here. He’ll be busy, but he doesn’t rule out some encore visits to Wilmot.

“Of course, I will be willing to come and play eventually,” he says. “Why not? I have to continue this ministry.”

From his home in Geneseo, Livingston County, retired senior editor Jim Memmott, writes Remarkable Rochester, who we were, who we are. He can be reached at jmemmott@gannett.com or write Box 274, Geneseo, NY 14454

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Dentist plays piano for cancer patients undergoing treatment at URMC