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A group of scientists hunched over their notes last month in the National Institutes of Health's Clinical Center. Patients, some with just months to live, observed the research project at the windows overlooking the atrium. A student in the center's Critical Care Medicine Department stood out for his solo achievement in the experiment.

Erlenmeyer flasks, protease inhibitors and white lab coats are probably what spring to mind. But how does "Summer" from Vivaldi's Four Seasons sound instead?

If you're listening to the 68-member NIH Philharmonia, it probably sounds like a professional orchestra, which is what its members have in mind, whether they are performing in the Clinical Center's ground floor June 15 for patients or for hundreds filling the pews at St. Elizabeth Church in Rockville.

The all-volunteer, nonprofit philharmonia began in 2005 under the direction of its conductor, Dr. Nancia D'Alimonte, and more than 50 of the members today are researchers and students at NIH, with the remaining members ranging from marketing specialists to graphic artists. For one member, rehearsal recently began immediately after 10 hours of neurosurgery, while sometimes musicians cut short practice time to check on experiments.

But as the orchestra has grown, so has its skill and pride in what has become not just a hobby but a passion. The group rehearses five or six times before each concert, and D'Alimonte make sure that passion is rewarded in the music they produce.

"I conduct them the way I would conduct a professional orchestra," she said.

The upcoming concert season begins in October and has five performances from Philharmonia and 19 pieces selected — from Mozart's "Don Giovanni" to, appropriately enough for an NIH orchestra, the premiere of "Mass for the Living" in memory of the mother of the composer, Amanda Jacobs. Concerts are free, but donations to the group go to the Children's Inn residence at NIH and other NIH charities.

The arc of a research project is not unlike the arc of the Philharmonia, said Dr. Richard Siegel, of Bethesda , principal investigator at the National Institute of Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, and a violin player in the Philharmonia for two years. Both start slowly as information is gathered and processed, and then the pace picks up until the final results are presented.

"When you're attacking a really difficult piece of music and you don't know if you're going to be able to do it, it sort of feels overwhelming, then you take it apart into little pieces, you work on little bits, and then you put it back together," Siegel said. "When you're trying to understand a scientific problem...you have to take it apart into little bits."

D'Alimonte, who is music director at George Washington University's orchestra, was seeking to create another orchestra five years ago when she decided to start her own. She had heard about physician orchestras, so NIH was a natural place to recruit.

Part of what attracts her to the group is the very passion and seriousness about their scientific and professional lives that translates easily to their bows, mouthpieces and scores.

After making a joke about the orchestra's members that music "is in our DNA," Garrett Park's Amy DeLouise, a marketing consultant and a former principal researcher at NIH, explains how playing and performing music fit two psychological needs of driven, busy scientists.

"It's really the nexus between the analytical and the emotional," DeLouise said.

Sometimes the orchestra becomes its own experiment in what normally lies outside the boundaries of NIH's mission: sociology. When members wish to join, D'Alimonte not only watches how they perform in rehearsals, but how they interact during breaks. Sometimes, hopefuls might be asked to brush up on their playing before returning to the group.

The concerts allow for D'Alimonte to indulge in a bit of physics. She sometimes asks those in the audience to cover their ears, for example, so they can experience only the vibrations of a low bass drum roll.

After bringing her cousin and professional musician to one of her concerts, cellist and Poolesville resident Jeansun Lee, who works for Siegel at NIAMS, recalled of her relative, "She could hear the intelligence in the sound."

The Philharmonia has improved with each concert he has participated in, Siegel said, while D'Alimonte said the members just keep on giving.

"There really is not an ego in this orchestra. It's one big family," she said.