| Photo by Kazuo Ota on Unsplash
Part XI of a “Cancer/Medical Moonshot” Series
It was like an extended Advent season for this columnist on Wednesday, February 18, 2026. Why? Because, according to our editorial fact checker, Mister Google, the 2026 calendar features an extraordinary “triple-crown” convergence of the Lunar (or Chinese or Vietnamese Tet) New Year, Ash Wednesday (the start of Lent), and the beginning of Ramadan, with all three beginning within a 24-hour period on February 17–18, 2026. This rare alignment, driven by the synchronization of different lunisolar, lunar, and solar calendars, last occurred in 1863 and will not recur until 2189.
Why an Advent-like happening for this journalist? At the Healing Haven, located on Level 00 of the Duke Cancer Center, this author heard Julia McMillan Fallon perform for the second time as a harpist. She is also an author and the directress of events. She comes from a family of musicians from New York City, although she is now based in North Carolina. That Wednesday morning, she rendered hymns like “Amazing Grace” that cancer patients waiting for radiation treatment could hear and see through the glass partition from the Oncology-Radiation Center. Some of the patients cried with joy, for their treatment was about to end successfully. Others cried perhaps because cancer is one of the most painful and lingering illnesses that torment mankind.
While listening to Ms. Julia, this author coined the phrase “Harp the Herald A.N.G.E.L.S. Sing” that day. Readers’ intelligent guess is that it was derived from a Christmas song or a song that rhymes with it. The only difference is that A.N.G.E.L.S. is an acronym, which can mean “America’s Newest Givers of Empathy, Love and Support.” Yes, support for the Duke healthcare system and its counterparts in other U.S. states and other countries for the long-sought cure, or even in mitigating cancer and other deadly medical maladies.
The Duke University Symphony Orchestra (DSO) is the premier orchestra at Duke University. The ensemble is part of the Department of Music within the Duke Arts community. Here are more key details about the ensemble: The orchestra is made up of 80–100 players who come almost entirely from the student body. The DSO features also student winners of the Duke Music Department’s Concerto Competition each spring.
Harry Davidson is the director of the DSO. Reports say that he has served as its music director for more than 25 years. It is open to all members of the Duke University community by audition. The orchestra performs major symphonic repertoire by composers from the 18th through the 20th centuries in several concerts each year, often in Baldwin Auditorium. The orchestra is known for its annual Labor-Day Weekend Pops concert on the East Campus Quad. It also has an annual benefit concert in Beaufort, South Carolina.
This author befriended also another volunteer celebrity of music, Al Harris, a pianist. He performs at the same venue often every Tuesday afternoon. Perhaps Ms. Julia, Mr. Harris and this journalist can form perhaps a troika that may discuss with Harry Davidson, the music director and conductor of the DSO and professor of the Practice of Music at Duke University a viable plan to form and aid the A.N.G.E.L.S. He was previously the music director and conductor of Opera at the Cleveland Institute of Music in 2007. His experience in Ohio can help a lot the proposed new Medical Center in the Philippines that may be patterned after the early 1901-era medical center created by two former U.S. presidents from Ohio. Remember this series started with an idea of emulating the 1901 original version in Sorsogon Province (Philippines) that will be partly be dedicated to Presidents William McKinley and William Howard Taft.
Imagine the impact in Ohio and other U.S. cities if annual concerts could be held at several Ohio venues, with both the Cleveland Institute of Music and Duke University’s Department of Music serving as the project’s prime movers? The project may be able to entice other interested musical talents, such as the Filipino-American Symphony Orchestra (FASO) of Los Angeles, California, to join in forming A.N.G.E.L.S. chapters in viable areas of the United States and other countries.
Yearly musical performances — in the right dates, with corporate and community support — can generate funding support for Duke University’s Healthcare’s A.N.G.E.L.S. and its counterparts in the Philippines, and other U.S. cities. And even in the other 49 medical centers located in strategically situated countries. More data in Part XII by Wednesday, as gathered by this columnist’s visits to Duke University Hospital’s Cancer Center, Emergency and Trauma Center, and the Duke University Hospital since January 22, 2026.
