Musical paramedics from across Ontario perform at Toronto event

After years working as a Peel Paramedic, Mississauga resident Mary Kate Terepka finally found time for her other passion—music.

Terepka has been a Peel Paramedic since 2008, and the job, while rewarding, comes with challenges. Paramedics often come into people’s lives during highly emotional moments. The job entails suppressing emotions in order to help people.

“It falls upon us to stay calm and steady for other people to keep very chaotic situations moving forward,” Terepka said.

It can be difficult to find a way to process those emotions at another time, Terepka said. Music and the arts can be therapeutic.

“For me, playing music, whether it’s stuff I have written or stuff other people have written, can be a way of channelling those feelings and sometimes shed some tears that aren’t really about the song,” she said.

Terepka organized and will join paramedics performing at Artists in the Ambulance 6, an all-first-responder lineup of musicians and artists from across Ontario on Sunday, May 17, in Toronto.

As the name implies, this is the sixth edition of the event, which Terepka first helped organize in 2017.

She had played music in a band through university in Ottawa, but stopped after moving to Mississauga, and her job and family took centre stage. Terepka’s husband is also a paramedic and a few years ago his colleague was looking to do a show featuring paramedics. She joined what was to be a one-off show. It has now grown to become a regular event.

In addition to music, the event includes a silent auction with items created by paramedics, including paintings, pottery, stained glass and other handmade items. The concert and silent auction is a fundraiser for Wounded Warriors Canada, an organization that provides support to people who, through their regular job duties, are continually exposed to traumatic events.

The evening highlights the creative lives of paramedics while supporting mental health programs for veterans, first responders and their families.

“The first responder community has an incredible amount of talent, and it’s a privilege to create a space in which it can be shared,”  said Terepka.  ”Our artistic outlets are so important for helping us process what we see and experience on the job.”

Everyone is welcome to attend the concert, not just the emergency services community. It is a chance for the public to see another side of paramedics.

“Part of it is to humanize the face of these people that come into your house and interact with your family in your most vulnerable moment,” she said.

The 10-19 Band poses for a selfie at a recent rehearsal.

Terepka said she has always enjoyed both science and the arts. In addition to music, she worked as a medical consultant on an episode of the television show From and the play Vitals. Both those opportunities came through connections Terepka made in the Artists in the Ambulance events.

The musicians performing at Artists in the Ambulance 6 are all either current or former paramedics, and each have different styles of music—from electronic to acoustic, Terepka said.

A new addition this year is Jake Robertson, who was a professional musician with the band ILLScarlett, a rock and reggae band that formed in 2001. Robertson recently became a paramedic.

“He is kind of the other side of the coin, where most of us, we have all primarily been paramedics this whole time with a side project of music, and he is the opposite,” Terepka said.

Here is the Artists in the Ambulance 6 performer lineup:

• 10-19 Band Toronto
• Alex Walsh Toronto
• Brandyn & Eleven Daryn Toronto/Norfolk
• Brady Wills Durham
• Jake Robertson Toronto/ILLScarlett
• Mary Kate Terepka Peel
• Matt Rollwagen Northumberland
• MIRRORS Guelph-Wellington
• Quantum pHLO Hamilton
• Ritch Mitchell ex-York

Artists in the Ambulance 6 will be at Rosario’s, 3030 Dundas St. W., Toronto on Sunday, May 17 from 7 p.m. to 11:59 p.m.

Tickets are $25 and available here on Eventbrite.

 

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