{"id":128044,"date":"2021-06-17T12:05:23","date_gmt":"2021-06-17T10:05:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=128044"},"modified":"2026-01-16T16:21:41","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T15:21:41","slug":"geriatrician-and-guitarist-francesco-mattace-raso-plays-music-with-his-son","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2021\/06\/17\/geriatrician-and-guitarist-francesco-mattace-raso-plays-music-with-his-son\/","title":{"rendered":"Geriatrician and guitarist Francesco Mattace-Raso plays music with his son"},"content":{"rendered":"

How do Erasmus University employees get through the coronavirus time? Are they starting new hobbies? Do they hold pub quizzes on Zoom? Professor of Geriatrics at Erasmus MC, Francesco Mattace-Raso (53) plays music with his 21-year-old son and posts his performances on Facebook. \u201cBefore corona, I used to perform about ten times a year with the band I\u2019m in. Obviously, that\u2019s not possible at the moment, so I do it at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Francesco Mattace Raso plays guitar.<\/span><\/p>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRonald van den Heerik<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Mattace-Raso once applied for a job with Eric Clapton\u2019s band. \u201cMy friends still make fun of me for that.\u201d He laughs loudly. \u201cBut I did get a reply! It was a polite, typically English, letter: unfortunately, we have no vacancies at this moment<\/em>.\u201d Perhaps it was a bit of a long shot. He put the dream of becoming a musician out of his mind \u2013 \u201cI didn\u2019t have enough talent\u201d \u2013 although he does occasionally fantasise about what might have been. Playing the guitar has remained a serious hobby of his. \u201cBefore corona, I used to practice with my band every week\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

He \u2018definitely\u2019 wasn\u2019t born into a musical family. \u201cI had something to compensate!\u201d That laugh erupts again. When he was eight years old, he started playing the piano, then the guitar. At the age of sixteen, Mattace-Raso joined his first band. He was still living in Rome at the time. He muses: \u201cI recently found some cassette tapes on which I had recorded my own songs. If only I had done something with them\u2026\u201d In 1999, he came to the Netherlands to work at Erasmus MC. There was an ad in the hospital magazine for a keyboard player in a doctor\u2019s band. Mattace-Raso saw the ad, got in touch and joined them as a guitarist and singer.<\/p>\n

Professional tennis player<\/h2>

And so the music-making continued. He performed ten times a year with his band Sticky Fingers (named after The Rolling Stones album), which has a \u2018classic configuration\u2019. Mattace-Raso plays guitar and sings, a paediatric pulmonologist from Erasmus MC plays bass guitar, the keyboard player is a urologist from another hospital in Rotterdam, and the drummer is a former professional tennis player. \u201cIt\u2019s a strange setup, isn\u2019t it?\u201d They rehearsed every week until corona struck.<\/p>\n\n\t

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Lees meer<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t