Dan Fabbio performed a piece on the saxophone during surgery to remove a brain tumour.

Saxophonist and music teacher Dan Fabbio played his saxophone during brain surgery, the University of Rochester’s Medical Centre reported. The performance was part of an effort to ensure that the removal of a tumour wouldn’t negatively impact Fabbio’s ability to play and hear music.

In 2015, the saxophonist, who was serving as a substitute music teacher in a school in New Hartford, New York, and studying for a Masters degree in music education, began to suffer visual and auditory hallucinations as well as dizziness and nausea.

“He had an MRI scan of his brain, which revealed a relatively large tumour in an area that is involved with sophisticated hearing and musical function,” said neurosurgeon Dr Webster Pilcher, who is the Ernest and Thelma Del Monte Distinguished Professor of Neuromedicine and Chair of Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Rochester. “When I met Dan for the first time, he expressed how concerned he was about losing his musical ability, because this frankly was the most important thing to him in his life, not only his livelihood, but his profession and...