The origin of the United States Public Health Service (USPHS) Commissioned Corps Music Ensemble can be traced to the 23 September 1999 meeting of the Scientist Professional Advisory Committee (SciPAC). At that meeting, the idea of creating a Commissioned Corps musical group was proposed by CAPT John J. Bartko, retired SciPAC representative, and universally supported by the SciPAC membership. CAPT Bartko and CAPT Derek E. Dunn, the Chief Scientist Officer at the time, recognized that unlike our sister services, the PHS Commissioned Corps was a uniformed service without musical groups. Therefore, CAPTs Bartko (ret) and Dunn undertook a pilot survey of officers in the Scientist Category to assess the degree of interest in forming a Commissioned Corps musical group. The survey results were encouraging, revealing that a number of Scientist officers were interested in joining a musical group.

Given this encouraging information, CAPT Dunn proposed to the Office of the Surgeon General (OSG) and other Chief Professional Officers (CPOs) that a PHS musical group be established. The OSG and CPOs embraced the idea of a Commissioned Corps musical group and authorized a survey of all active duty officers to determine the Corps-wide level of interest. With the cooperation of the OSG, Division of Commissioned Corps Personnel, and Mike Lord, Executive Director of the Commissioned Officers Association (COA), the Commissioned Corps Bulletin and the COA Frontline were utilized to conduct a survey of active duty officers in the Spring of 2000. About 25 officers from the Washington, DC area and approximately 50 from the field indicated interest in participating in the formation of the musical group.

The respondents were invited to participate in a meeting to discuss establishment of a Commissioned Corps musical group. The meeting was held 27 July 2000 in the Surgeon General’s conference room of the Parklawn Building in Rockville, Maryland. Twelve officers were in attendance and eleven participated by telephone. At this organizational meeting, a welcome and charge by Deputy Surgeon General RADM Kenneth P. Moritsugu was read (RADM Moritsugu is an accomplished organist). During the meeting, there was discussion of establishing a choral group, a wind group, and a chamber group.

The USPHS Commissioned Corps Music Ensemble has since become a well-recognized group, performing at about 25 events each year. The current lead coordinators of the various Washington, DC groups are: CAPT Paul Andreason and CDR Moira McGuire, leaders of the choral group; LCDR Scott Colburn and LCDR Jialynn Wang, leaders of the wind group. The chamber group is currently inactive. CAPT Mary Reichler is the leader of the Atlanta wind group, and CDR John Tyson Chapman serves as leader of the Butner, NC choral group. CAPT Sally Brown and CDR Elise Young currently serve as field leaders for the choral and wind groups, respectively.

The Music Ensemble administration originally resided within SciPAC with the Chief Scientist Officer serving as the liaison between the Ensemble and OSG. CAPT (ret) John Bartko and CAPT Derek Dunn served as the Ensemble’s first co-Executive Directors. Currently, RDML Boris Lushniak and CAPT (ret) James Knoben serve as co-Executive Directors, and CDR Stacey Williams provides administrative support. Operating funds for the Music Ensemble have been procured from OPDIV support and generous ongoing support from the DC Branch of the COA.