One doctor’s knowledge of medicine and music will provide history and insight into some of the world’s best-known composers and how their health affected their creativity and contributed to their deaths at 5 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 29, at the University of Rochester.

Dr. Robert S. Bakos, associate professor of neurosurgery at the University of Rochester Medical Center, will lecture on “Dead German Composers and How They Got That Way” as part of the continuing Neilly Series in Rush Rhees Library on the University’s River Campus. The lecture in the Welles-Brown Room is free and open to the public.

As a youth, Bakos studied for nine years at the Cleveland Music Settlement where he became proficient on violin and clarinet, and also pursued music theory and composition classes. His appreciation of music draws him to topics that blend his medical and musical experiences and knowledge. His talk will be accompanied by musical selections.

The Neilly Series is supported by a major gift from University alumnus Andrew H. Neilly and his wife, Janet Dayton Neilly, and is produced by the River Campus Libraries of the University of Rochester. For more information, contact (585) 275-4461.

Note to editors: A JPEG image of Dr. Bakos can be e-mailed to you. Please call (585) 275-4128 or send your request to sdickman@rochester.edu.