Woodwind Energy

“We as lawyers need to stay in touch with our creative sides. It’s critical, honestly, for my well-being,” says Patti Epstein Putney, a medical malpractice litigator at Bell, Moore & Richter in Madison. “I always tell younger lawyers, whether it’s athletics or dance or whatever your passion is, don’t give it up just because you’re a lawyer working long hours. How we are defined is not just by our profession. It’s by the things that make us who we are.”

For Epstein Putney, that’s playing the flute and piccolo. It started when the New York native was 12 and continued into high school, when she won a seat on the All-City High School Orchestra. At the end of the year, they played a joint concert with the New York Philharmonic, and Epstein Putney sat next to the Philharmonic’s principal piccolo player. “How do you have one of the highlights of your life at age 17?” she says with a laugh. “But I did.”

She played orchestral music throughout college but stopped during law school. She missed it, though, so Epstein Putney joined chamber groups when she started practicing law. “Now I’m actually playing more than I ever have,” she says. That includes at her synagogue, Madison Community Orchestra, Verona Area Community Orchestra, Capitol Quintet, UW Summer Band, and Madison Flute Club—the latter also includes her daughter, a bass flautist. 

She’s busy, but fulfilled.

“I can have a really stressful day,” she says, “but when I’m playing, it’s almost meditative. I put everything else out of my mind other than reading the music and playing well. It has helped me be able to say, ‘OK, it’s 5 and I have a rehearsal. I’m going to shut the computer down and go.’ Maybe I need to check back in when I’m done, but that ability to compartmentalize is helpful, both to my lawyering and fluting.”