Early Ensembles
Flute and piccolo in marching band, piano in dance band, oboe in the Rhode Island Youth Orchestra, and an Outstanding Music Award at Cranston High East.
Meet the composer
About Arnold
A lifelong connection to music, renewed through composition after a career in medicine.
A return to music
Memory, Faith & the Orchestra
Music was an essential part of Arnold S. Kirshenbaum’s childhood, and its melodies remained with him throughout his medical career.
He began piano in elementary school and later added flute, piccolo, and oboe through marching band, dance band, and youth orchestra. At Providence College he played oboe in the orchestra while studying biology, graduating magna cum laude before continuing to Georgetown University School of Medicine.
Medicine became his profession, but music never disappeared. During long drives between Silver Spring and the Naval and Marine Health Clinic in Quantico, melodies would return to him. Years later, he resumed formal studies in music theory and composition with Dr. Joshua Fishbein.
Dr. Kirshenbaum completed a fellowship in Allergy and Immunology at the National Institutes of Health under Dr. Anthony Fauci, with supervision by Dr. Dean Metcalfe. He credits medicine’s attention to detail with helping shape his approach to composition.
As an observant Orthodox Jew and a Kohen, his faith and Jewish musical tradition are also central to his creative life. Melodies may arrive during Shabbat, to be remembered and written down only after its close.
View Curriculum VitaeProvidence College
Oboe in the college orchestra while completing undergraduate studies in biology.
Composition Studies
College-level music theory and composition with Dr. Joshua Fishbein.
Festival of Lights Premiere
Festival of Lights Medley was commissioned and premiered by the Susquehanna Symphony Orchestra in Bel Air, Maryland.
Tisha B’Av Variations
Concert pianist Raffi Kasparian performed the work at the Lyceum in Alexandria, Virginia.
In conversation
Selected Videos
Hear the story in sound
Explore the Music
Listen to orchestral, piano, vocal, and Jewish-inspired works across the catalog.