A member of the ophthalmology faculty in the medical school since 1993, Achiron is one of several performers in various music department instrumental groups who are not full-time music students planning to pursue careers in music. Because of Achiron's lifelong love of music, however, it turns out that optometry's gain does not have to be music's loss.
"When I was growing up in New York, I used to go into [Greenwich] Village to see the really top players," Achiron recalled. "One of the percussionists in the jazz ensemble at the School of the Performing Arts at that time was Steve Jordan, who later played on the David Letterman Show for years. He also played in the Saturday Night Live band, and was the drummer on `Soul Man' [recorded in 1979 by Dan Aykroyd and the late John Belushi and included in the soundtrack of the film "The Blues Brothers"].
"Steve is the same age as I am, and we were friends," Achiron continued. "He was doing things like subbing for Stevie Wonder at age 16. It was just incredible coming up in that environment and knowing those guys. I saw how good these guys were, and I knew I couldn't be that good, at least not at that stage."
After college, Achiron took a year off to tour with several bands, "just to make money so I could go to optometry school," he said. "I played six nights a week doing bar mitzvahs and weddings, playing for acts like Della Reese and Al Martino, and even playing in show bands."
When Achiron went to the New England College of Optometry in Boston, he was immediately recruited for the jazz band Area 17, which refers to a portion of the visual cortex.
Although Achiron put his music on the back burner while attending college at the University of New York at Buffalo and later in optometry school, he still enjoyed dropping in on Greenwich Village clubs during trips home. On one such visit when he was 21, Achiron met famed jazz drummer Billy Hart and asked Hart's advice about how to become a great drummer. "I asked him what I needed to do to get there, to that level of quality," Achiron recalled. "He said, `You don't need to get there right now. You just need to play for the rest of your life. You can keep playing and be great at 60. You don't have to be great at 25 or 30.'"
Achiron took that advice to heart and decided his optometry career would be his first priority and that he would focus on his music later on after his career was well established.
In addition to playing percussion instruments such as timpani, marimbas and bass drum with the Jazz Ensemble, Achiron is a frequent player for other music department groups including the Emory Wind Ensemble, Emory Brass Ensemble and the Atlanta-Emory Orchestra.
These performance experiences proved so enjoyable for Achiron that he decided to take his commitment to music to an even higher level: pursuing a bachelor's degree in music through the Courtesy Scholarship program. "My professors have been really helpful," Achiron said. "Obviously I can't take several hours out of my schedule each week to go to class, because I have patients to see and it just wouldn't be cost effective for the department for me to do that. So some of the music professors have agreed to tutor me on the side, evenings and afternoons. I meet with them once a week after I'm finished seeing patients and they go over the week's class material with me. I'm also taking private lessons with Mike Cebulski, director of percussion at Emory, as part of my degree program."
This semester, Achiron is taking his first music theory class. "Theory has been kind of tough," he said, "especially the sight reading. I think that coming from a percussion background makes it even harder."
Even though optometry will continue to be the focus of Achiron's professional life, he chooses to follow the example of famed drummer Buddy Rich, who was a black belt in karate. "Buddy Rich always talked about the importance of having balance in your life," Achiron said. "Being in the optometry field is great, but music gives me another creative outlet and gives me that balance in my life. I really think that music is an especially good conduit for giving your life that kind of breadth."
--Dan Treadaway