No disease has had as notorious an impact on classical music as syphilis. Composer Franz Schubert spent years battling the disease with mercury baths, saunas and pills, dying at 31 with his 9th symphony unfinished; Bedřich Smetana wrote a string quartet chronicling his syphilis-induced hearing loss; and American hero Scott Joplin went slowly insane with tertiary syphilis, dying in a New York City mental hospital before his opera Treemonisha could be heard.

Syphilis wasn’t curable in their lifetimes, but it has been since the introduction of penicillin in the 1940s. But even though it was almost entirely eradicated in 2000, it’s back now. Cases have skyrocketed in recent years, reaching levels not seen since the 1950s. U.S. rates have surged by nearly 80% since 2019 and by over 3000% since 2000.

Why? Factors include a lack of screening during the pandemic, when many STI clinics were converted to Covid-19 testing sites; discontinuation of STI awareness campaigns due to funding reallocation; expansion of sexual networks in the era of dating apps; and the fact that many states still do lack useful sexual health education. Despite this spike, Congress voted in 2023 to strip $400 million of vital funding to the workers who provide access to education, testing and treatment for STIs.

But what if I told you that classical music could help play a role in getting rid of syphilis once and for all? Imagine if arts organizations and hospitals in cities around the U.S. partnered to offer incentives for a range of public health initiatives, offering free or discounted tickets to those who participate in health screenings or vaccinations at partner hospitals.

You might raise an eyebrow, but we need creative solutions, and as a Juilliard-trained musician and former medical researcher, I see a unique opportunity for classical music and arts organizations to help stick it to the disease that claimed the lives of so many musicians.

It’s a win-win strategy for arts institutions. Audiences at classical performances have struggled to regain audiences since the pandemic. Last season, New York City’s Metropolitan Opera sold just 72% of its tickets, leaving an average of 1,064 seats empty at every performance. The Met lies at the heart of New York City’s Lincoln Center, a cultural institution that also includes the New York Philharmonic, the New York City Ballet, and The Juilliard School. All have been plagued with flagging ticket sales.

But what if these institutions offered their unsold tickets to people getting tested for syphilis? That could fill those empty seats, promote awareness of our cities’ vital cultural institutions and help eradicate disease – all at no extra cost to them.

Lincoln Center already partners with NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, in a collaboration that began in 2016 and named NewYork-Presbyterian the “official” hospital of Lincoln Center and wellness sponsor for certain programming and events. Hospital CEO Steven J. Corwin described the collaboration as “two iconic New York City institutions coming together to offer the very best in both arts and wellness.” They’ve since offered dancing in the plaza to stimulate physical wellbeing, musical meditation for mental wellbeing, and blood drives accompanied by performances from Juilliard students.

Now, they could bring this collaboration to a new level by offering free tickets to patients being tested for syphilis in any of NewYork-Presbyterian’s eight citywide STI clinics. They could even set up a testing unit right in Lincoln Center, similar to their blood drive. Space, publicity and accompanying performances could be provided by Lincoln Center, with testing provided by NewYork-Presbyterian. Both organizations would benefit, and funding could be available through grants focused specifically on cross-sector collaborations.

Cooperation between the public health sector and the arts to offer education, testing and treatment of syphilis has worked in the past. In the 1940s and 50s, musical stars including Woody Guthrie and Sister Rosetta Tharpe recorded radio PSAs to tell the public that penicillin could treat it. This creative campaign allowed Americans to learn and talk about syphilis openly and helped to contribute to 2 million Americans getting treated between 1945 and 1955.

And why stop at syphilis, or with New York? Whether a seasonal flu shot or HIV testing, this approach could not only address pressing public health concerns but also create a new wave of cultural engagement and appreciation. It could potentially de-stigmatize disease while putting performing arts institutions at the heart of their communities’ wellbeing. It might even break down the elitism so often associated with classical music by inviting people to engage in new ways.

While not everybody who needs syphilis education, testing and treatment cares about tickets to the symphony or the opera, the awareness generated from a partnership like this could create a ripple effect that brings more testing to communities most at risk.

Lincoln Center and NewYork-Presbyterian have already shown their collaboration can be mutually beneficial. By merging public health initiatives with the arts, we can both combat disease and rejuvenate our cities’ crucial cultural institutions, proving that the arts can be a powerful force for change.