April 22, 2025

Both require intellectual curiosity, dedication and patience — skills Hamilton has honed equally in his medical and musical pursuits. As he looks toward an internal medicine residency at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville this summer after commencement in May, Hamilton is reflecting on how his two passions have intersected throughout his life and inspired his future career as a physician.

Growing up in Bradenton, Florida, Hamilton often envisioned a career as a musician, though his interests also spanned into science.

At age 12, Hamilton’s parents agreed to sign him up for piano lessons for his birthday, and his teacher soon suggested he try the pipe organ. The instrument, with its origins dating back to ancient Greece, is seldom favored by modern preteens. However, Hamilton took a shine to it and even became the go-to organ player during church services and events at Saint Stephen’s Episcopal School. In May, he will return to his Bradenton alma mater as a commencement speaker. The first in his family to go to college, Hamilton attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he earned undergraduate degrees in biology and music performance, followed by a master’s degree in nutritional biology. He then returned to his home state to begin studying in the College of Medicine at UF.

While the studying, tests and brisk pace of medical school make it a challenging experience, Hamilton said his musical background has informed a lot of the processes he has used to stay on track.

“Many of the skill sets of both fields are synergistic,” Hamilton said. “The skills you learn as a musician, or in any other creative field, inherently make you a better doctor.”

Musicians, he said, have to be great listeners; physicians also need to listen intently to understand the perspectives of their patients. And just as memorizing a list of every human bone, muscle, nerve, artery and organ — not to mention how they interact with one another — cannot happen overnight, learning an instrument or a new piece of music takes time and practice.

“There are times when you need to fail first before you get better,” Hamilton said of both music and physician training.

While in medical school, Hamilton found a way to infuse his love of the pipe organ with learning about human organ systems.

In 2023, he and his classmates organized a new iteration of “Gators Got Talent,” a night of fun where his peers took to the stage at the University Auditorium to sing, dance, hold band performances and showcase a gallery of visual art.

“I was nervous heading into medical school, thinking, ‘Am I going to be the only person who is really involved in music?’” Hamilton said. “And it’s been nice to know we have so many incredible, talented musicians and artists in the program. ‘Gators Got Talent’ has really been a safe haven for me.”

Hamilton has received awards from faculty and peer judges for his pipe organ performances during the talent show, where he has filled the auditorium with pieces ranging from the brooding “Chaconne in D Minor” by Johann Sebastian Bach to Hans Zimmer’s dreamy “Cornfield Chase” from the film “Interstellar.”

Following graduation, Hamilton will be moving to Jacksonville for his internal medicine residency at the Mayo Clinic.

While he initially thought — as a musician who liked to work with his hands — that he would gravitate toward specializing in surgery, Hamilton knew internal medicine was a great fit for him during his clerkship rotation.

“I liked that it was multifaceted and not confined to one organ system, so you get to work across multiple disciplines and with different specialties,” Hamilton said. “It’s kind of like being a detective, piecing together symptoms across multiple systems.”

With this knowledge, Hamilton can’t wait to finally begin his career as a physician.

“When you’re in medical school, it can be hard to fathom that one day soon you’ll be the one making medical decisions for people,” Hamilton said. “It’s been a long road, but I’m really looking forward to what’s next.”