The person who gave me the opportunity to meet Mickael was José Rodrigues, President of the Students’ Association. We were looking for the right people to record a video and Mickael had the right profile. A year 6 medical student and a little older than the average student, he was born in Yerevan, Armenia. He was a perfect example to show the importance of diversity and that it is in this difference that wealth is born.

And this was how it went: Mickael spent almost a whole day with us recording and repeating takes. Always composed, always willing to redo, to start over, always available.

Making of the institutional video “Choices”

I proposed to meet during the summer to talk about his journey up to ending up here and of course I discovered endless curious details that explain his definitive coming to Portugal and to the Faculty of Medicine.

His father, Varoujan Bartikian, a respected cellist, in 1989 received an invitation from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation to be a permanent member of the orchestra. He hesitated a lot about moving to Portugal and was slow to decide. Cultural Armenia was a different society, still part of the former Soviet Union. To be a musician there meant being part of the category of those who had high prestige and status. On 9 November 1989, his father caught the airplane to Portugal. At the same time the Berlin Wall fell, which would lead to cultural and geostrategic changes, like pieces of a domino moving in a sequence. It can be said that his father’s choice was good because today he is the main cello in the orchestra.

Mickael was born in 1988 and still seems to be a mix of the generations before him. His mother is a violinist and plays at the São Carlos Theatre. With an uncle who is a painter, the generation above his parents were jewellers and engineers.

No wonder music is part of his genetic code. Mickael plays the cello. He perfected his gift at the D. Dinis Conservatory in Odivelas, his natural instinct running through his blood from birth. His natural aptitude meant his parents always expected that Mickael would be a musician. It is no coincidence that he has played twice at the Gulbenkian Foundation, the last time on 20 September at the World Doctors Orchestra.

But he is more than just a cellist.

He knows exactly what he likes most in life: music, cars, and picturing himself in an operating theatre. He loves mechanics and speed and being the grandson of a jeweller, seeing himself in the operating room is part of the equation and is like sculpting the valuable stone that cannot be broken.

Although he arrived in Portugal when he was just over 2 years old, he visited his homeland often, so that Armenia would never be unknown to him, where he maintained his family structure.

He studied at the French School and soon decided to leave for Toulouse to learn more about mechanical engineering. He completed the first year, but with the same promptness he did it, he also concluded that he would be “quickly bored” of always doing the same. After all, the dreamer who saw himself building airplanes says that it was in close contact with a female doctor that he decided that “medicine could be fascinating”. Thus a new challenge was born for him, “to solve problems by involving people”.

Throughout this affirmation of will and personality journey, Mickael experienced several passions, including photography and shooting. He also became a producer of musical shows.

He talks slowly as if inside his brain, which he loves so much to study, could go back in time like a journey to another place, indeed to his inner place.

He returned to Portugal and back to scratch. He sat new exams. He believed he wanted to carry out research and entered Health Sciences at the University of Lisbon. It is after graduating that he decided to continue his path and it was at this precise moment that he entered the Faculty of Medicine of Lisbon to study a master degree in Neurosciences.

Only then he realized that he still felt limited, incomplete, because the path pointed to basic research, and that was not what he wanted to do. He realized that he needed the impact of the clinical world and wanted to enter a more translational realm. Not having a medical degree would not make his life easier to conduct clinical research.

In an informal conversation with the former Faculty Director, Professor Fernandes and Fernandes, he asked Mikael, “Why don’t you apply?” And Mickael, who had never thought of it, applied as a graduate. He successfully completed all years of the medical degree and addressed new challenges. Today he says he wants to do vascular surgery. It is always the skill involving the use of hands that is transversal to Mickael, whether when he plays the cello or when he sees himself meticulously using every gesture to treat a patient. His passion for the human brain and what feeds it is the cause of most of his time and commitment.

It is the holiday period and there is almost no one at the Faculty, but Mickael is here today and tomorrow and next week. He will not be on holidays. He meets me at the Anatomical Theatre and shows me his passion.

In front of him stands a computer showing a brain three-dimensionally and, beside it, a 3D printer. What Mickael does is not at all simple, but it can solve many cases that until now would be done without previous training. In a separate room there is another printer and several skulls or part of them. “You can handle them, they are made of plastic” he tells me, proud of his immense printings that have earned him numerous GAPIC Awards and Scholarships, or the 1st Research Award at the AIMS Meeting, as well as at the YES Meeting.

Mickael’s model of a brain tumor

By recreating situations of blood vessel obstruction in the brain, or skull bone problems, what Mickael has been working on since the first year of the degree is to give medical teams the chance to test on plastic models that could become future disease patterns.

It is no coincidence that Anatomy was his preferred subject, because it made him see the body in a three-dimensional way, learning to be visionary and to look beyond what appears before our eyes.

Where do you find yourself in the midst of these cultures, being both an Armenian from a former USSR country and a Portuguese who has Latin bases?

Mickael: I never thought about my identity much as if I am a citizen of the world. I don’t like this idea very much because we don’t seem to have a home. And I feel at home, more here than there. But I am different from most Portuguese and much more different from most Armenians.

But when thinking about it, I believe we have more in common than differences. Both are very hospitable, have good cuisine, and a predominantly Christian culture. I would say that the big difference between people is that one has traces of a Soviet discipline and here, if we arrange an appointment for 7 pm, people always show up late.

Looking at the path you’ve already trodden, it’s funny to see that you’re never afraid of going back to square one. Does starting over again never demoralize you?

Mickael: I don’t like standing still and I’m not afraid to start from scratch. I feel that I have the tools for this and over time I have been creating personal safety. I often say that if they take everything from me and send me to a desert island, I will create my little civilization there. (He stops and hesitates) I only found it hard the first time, it was hard. Switching from Engineering to Science entailed many changes, including of country. It was good to return to Portugal because it is my place and the French people are much less empathic. But it made me refocus, it changed me. Much.

Is it hard for you to make choices?

Mickael: Maybe … One of my shortcomings is that I can’t say no to anything. I want to do a lot at the same time.

At the age of 31, are you afraid that something in life will slip out of your hands?

Mickael: (Long silence) No … I was never afraid of finitude. I have always lived fully and often say that I prefer to trade ninety or eighty for a good thirty. And I learned that it’s not worth making long-term plans. I learned that the hard way.

How, can you explain it to me?

Mickael: My long-term plan was to be an Engineer and work for Airbus and it didn’t go as planned. And that was a disappointment that made me equate a number of things. I was very different from what I am today. I had to reposition my bricks from the beginning and change the architecture of my “house” a bit.

For someone whose hand accuracy is essential, how do you deal with nervousness? Do your hands never shake even when you play?

Mickael: I get a little nervous before I play in public, my hands get sweaty. Then I start and it becomes the most natural thing. And I love the butterflies in my stomach before going on stage. And if I don’t feel it, it’s not going to be a good concert, it’s hardly worth it.

I know you have been invited by the World Doctors Orchestra to play on 20 September at Gulbenkian and at Casa da Música in Porto on the 21th. It’s not a small challenge…

Mickael: This is a worldwide orchestra that organizes concerts in various countries and this time it was in Portugal. But who invited me was my colleague Sebastião (Martins) who has also played in this orchestra when he was in Paris. This is the second time I play at Gulbenkian. The first time I played on that fantastic stage was on the occasion of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Gulbenkian Orchestra.

How do you end up at Gulbenkian?

Mickael: Gulbenkian wanted the musicians of its orchestra to play with their children or other family members. And I went with my father. I played the same piece as him.

Is it intimidating to play alongside your lead player dad?

Mickael: A little. Yes! And Joana Carneiro was conducting! Given that I can only play about 10% of what my father plays (laughs). But it was a very amusing experience.

While we were filming the institutional video I was watching you, and I found you are very strict with yourself. Are you really like this?

Mickael: I’m a perfectionist and careful. Being strict would limit my imagination.

Are you a dreamer?

Mickael: Yes … (laughing) Maybe I spend too much time looking out the window into infinity, thinking about many things. And I think people should do it more often, stop and think. Of course I have disappointments, but I move on.

You told me that for you to take a week off to go to a beach to rest is a waste of time. Are you serious?

Mickael: A week, yes! One day or two will do. But it’s just to be able to read a book. But a week doing nothing or always doing the same thing is impossible for me.

As a year 6 student starting a fiercer study phase, there is much talk of burnout. How do you deal with the pressure of results?

Mickael: (silence) I resort to music! For this reason, I will not stop playing and I will stay connected to the Lisbon Medical Orchestra and to the Academic Orchestra of the University of Lisbon. And when rehearsals are not at the same time I go to both.

making of, while reading Hippocratic Oath

Year 6 means long study hours and it is Mikael’s main focus so that he can be ready for the final ranking exam in November 2020. This also explains why he spent the whole summer at the Anatomical Theatre doing tests and more tests in one of his 3D printers in an attempt to complete his models to be studied. Very soon he will be interning at Beatriz Ângelo Hospital and he does not deny that while there, in direct contact with patients and other clinical areas, he may change his mind about what he really wants to pursue, which at the moment is vascular surgery.

Mickael’s model of a skull to recreate surgery for a baby

Mickael has an almost mysterious tranquillity gained through the discipline imposed by the shooting practice, taming the most primal impulses we all more or less have. Strong focus and discipline are the hallmarks of this man who knows what he wants so well, who has never been afraid of the labels of continuing this quest, until he is sure of what completes him completely. Of who he is.

Joana Sousa

Editorial Team