Montreal musician and pediatrician cares for community through song
Posted December 28, 2023 3:29 pm.
Last Updated December 28, 2023 11:23 pm.
When Dr. Paul Rossy isn’t caring for his pediatric patients, he’s composing and crafting clever riffs on his guitar. The music aficionado who writes, composes, and performs his songs, which are enhanced by the arrangements of the Sunset Hill Jazz Band, is simply “an artist who happens to be a doctor,” he says.
With his debut holiday jazz album, Sainte-Catherine in December, the songwriter has resumed collaborating with the Sunset Hill Jazz Band. Rossy will donate all profits from the album’s sale to the Montreal Children’s Hospital Foundation.
“Having [taught there] for so long, I wanted to continue to contribute to the Montreal Children’s Hospital, which is so kind to my patients, and I have many of them. So I wanted to give back, and this is my way of giving back,” Rossy told CityNews.
The musician also turns his songs into children’s books, like his third authored work titled “Mango Honey Tea.”
“I have a song for children after the same title, and then we have a jazz song. And the jazz is part of my latest album […] I’m very proud to say that the jazz album is playing in 70 countries,” he says.
When songwriting, “I think of a chord progression. Then I would put together a melody based on these chords. And then I would put words to it,” Rossy explains.
As the folk-jazz artist prepares to take the Place-des-Arts stage with a special Halloween show on Oct. 20, 2024, he urges adults and children alike to attend dressed in their favorite costumes.
“My hope is that children become inspired by art – want to write books, want to play music, want to sing, want to dance – that’s my hope. I believe that the more children participate in the arts, the happier they’ll be,” Rossy says.
