Meet Dr. Britta Swedenborg!
Dr. Britta Swedenborg is an audiologist at Massachusetts Eye and Ear in Boston. She works with patients of all ages and has a variety of responsibilities including diagnostic hearing evaluations, rehabilitation including hearing aids and cochlear implants, fitting patients with hearing protection for preventative care, and intraoperative monitoring primarily during neurosurgery. Britta became interested in audiology through her desire to combine her passions for music and biology. She is constantly challenged in the quickly growing and changing field of hearing health.
Britta has played flute and piccolo with the Longwood Symphony Orchestra for nearly four years. She started playing flute in the fourth grade and has been playing in orchestras since the seventh grade. She was drawn to playing with the LSO because of its unique mission of combining music with medicine – much like her decision to make audiology her career. In addition to playing in the orchestra, Britta enjoys participating in LSO On Call concerts with her woodwind quintet, the Accidental Quintet. In her words, "being able to connect to people through music has always been inspiring to me and has allowed for some of my most meaningful relationships, whether they are personal or professional."
Fun Facts:
Hometown:
- St. Paul, MN
Instruments:
- My main instrument is the flute, but I started on piano. I also play accordion (I played in a tango band in college) and rudimentary ukulele. Recently I started taking Scottish fiddle lessons for something new!
Favorite Current Musician:
- Chris Thile, the mandolin player and composer. I am not the first to say he is a musical genius (he has received a MacArthur Genius Grant). I was very excited when he recently took over as host of A Prairie Home Companion.
Favorite Vacation Spot:
- Definitely my family's cabin in northern Minnesota near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. Getting out of the car and smelling the fresh air at the end of the 6-hour drive immediately relaxes me.
If you could play with any musician (dead or alive) who would it be?
- Swedish clarinetist Martin Fröst. He can really play anything, and just happens to dance at the same time! I recommend looking him up on YouTube if you haven't seen him perform.
What did you want to do for a living when you were a child?
- I think I used to want to grow up to be Gene Kelly (totally realistic) because I loved his dancing in all his movies, especially "Singin’ in the Rain".