Where MusicHealsGlennJan began

Glenn Donnellan is a world-class musician — a violinist for the National Symphony Orchestra since 1997 and the creator of the Batolin, which he plays to the delight of Major League audiences.

Glenn Donnellan is also a world-class human being — kind-hearted, gracious, quick-witted, and eager to help others.

Glenn has always had one of those brains that seems to fire on every cylinder, both right brain and left brain running at full capacity.

In February 2019, however, Glenn underwent a craniotomy to remove a massive brain tumor. Tragically and most unexpectedly, the surgery did not proceed as planned, and a major vascular complication occurred. A second neurosurgeon had to be called in to help complete the surgery and save Glenn’s life. In addition to the vascular complication during surgery, Glenn experienced a post-surgery series of unexpected life-threatening complications.   

Glenn is pictured in the photograph below on the right, with the surgeon who saved Glenn’s life, Dr. Henry Brem, on the left.

Glenn spent four and a half weeks in and out of consciousness in the Johns Hopkins Neurocritical Care Unit (NCCU) in Baltimore, unable to communicate, lying in a hospital bed and connected by wires to medical machines that monitored his life functions, with his family desperately hoping for some kind of recovery.

After six and a half weeks at Johns Hopkins, Glenn was transferred to National Rehabilitation Hospital in Washington, D.C., where he stayed for 90 days before going home.

It has been a long and rocky journey, but Glenn not only regained consciousness, he began to talk and walk, then he even began playing music again. He is slowly but surely on his way to full recovery. 

Glenn is, according to the doctors, a walking miracle. 

And yes, Glenn’s team included world-class neurosurgeons and highly specialized doctors, nurses, and therapists, but his team also was headed by Jan, his wife. 

You see, Jan is an amazing musician too, also a stellar violinist who has played with the NSO. She has been a fierce advocate for Glenn’s care and rehabilitation, including helping him return to doing what few other people on Earth can do: play the violin magnificently, connecting with people on a transcendental level. 

Jan and Glenn themselves have shared a musical reciprocity since they met in 1991 at a chamber music camp. They connect deeply through music, through love, and through practicing their artistry with an unbelievable diligence. Over the years, they have played hundreds of concerts together and traveled the world to perform. Their children, Aidan and Katherine, are extraordinary musicians as well. To hear any of them play elicits goosebumps; to hear them play together is magical.

During those arduous days and weeks in the hospital and throughout rehabilitation, Jan played some of Glenn’s favorite music for him, causing him to react viscerally. That positive response gave Jan hope. She believed that Glenn could return to being the Glenn Donnellan so many people knew and loved before his multiple medical crises threw their lives into chaos.  

In recovery, Glenn had thousands of people pulling for him, including his NSO family of musicians as well as those who had been touched when he played the national anthem on the Batolin, which always ends with an eruption of cheers from nearly everyone in a stadium. 

My family and I were lucky enough to be at Nationals Stadium with Glenn for his debut Batolin performance, where he played an extraordinary version of “The Star-Spangled Banner” on a violin he built by hand in from a wooden Louisville Slugger bat. 

Glenn had worked on the Batolin in his garage, which was about a minute’s walk from our garage. With a drill press, Glenn used his extraordinary brain to create and fine-tune an unorthodox instrument that may have appeared quirky but sounded beautiful in the hands of Glenn Donnellan.

I have seen Glenn play many times at different baseball stadiums, and each time I have enjoyed watching fans clamor to tell him how much they loved his performance. Even better, I’ve seen those same fans encouraged to interact with Glenn, who was always as delighted by the encounters as they were. 

I hope he someday is able to again play for a Major League Baseball game, when sporting events return to the world and fans are allowed to pack into stadiums. I hope he someday is able to again play onstage at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., when audiences are allowed to sit shoulder to shoulder and revel in the talent of the National Symphony Orchestra.

Until then, without crowds and public performances, I hope people are comforted by the virtual performances of this talented couple, playing in their home to celebrate so many milestones of the past 14 months, sharing their music to express their deep and enduring gratitude for where they are today. 

Jan and Glenn and their family are extremely grateful for all the support they have received. Around the one-year anniversary of Glenn’s surgery, the two performed a concert (pictured above) at Johns Hopkins NCCU to thank and honor the neurosurgeons, doctors, nurses, therapists, and staff who saved and extended Glenn’s life. Glenn’s family is also thankful that his medical ordeal happened at a time when families were allowed to stay with patients and preventative restrictions weren’t the way of the world.

They know that we are all now in a time of crisis, and they know that music is a way we can connect to our emotions and to other people who are experiencing the highs and lows that Glenn and Jan have been enduring. So they are planning to make their personal musical performances into weekly public micro-concerts via a YouTube channel called MusicHealsGlennJan, to uplift spirits (ours and theirs) for a few minutes at a time and to celebrate how far Glenn has come in his quest to perform again.

—Eileen Brady