Brookline doctor commissions new piece for The Concord Band

Brookline-based ophthalmologist Dr. Elliot Finkelstein, along with his wife Bette, has taken his second passion, music, to a whole new level. He recently commissioned a new piece for The Concord Band, one of New England's top community concerts bands, in which he plays bass clarinet.

Elliot Del Borgo
composer

The work is titled "Israeli Folk Suite" by American composer Elliot Del Borgo. It will be premiered at the band's fall concert on Saturday, Oct. 28, at The Performing Arts Center, 51 Walden St., Concord, and will be conducted by the composer. The piece was commissioned by both Finkelstein and wife Bette in honor of Elliot's 70th birthday and was a gift from Bette to her husband.

Finkelstein had put his clarinet aside after high school to pursue his medical degree and ophthalmology practice and to raise a family. He did not take up the instrument again for 48 years. About five years ago, at Bette's urging, he decided to start playing clarinet again.

Finkelstein joined The Concord Band in the third clarinet section in 2001. A resident of Newton, Finkelstein is an ophthalmologist with a Brookline-based practice, which he has shared with his daughter, Dr. Macie Finkelstein, for the past 13 years. With an undergraduate degree from Harvard University, he received his doctor of medicine degree from Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Mo., in 1967.
A past-president of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, he is currently affiliated with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and Massachusetts General Hospital.