By day, Amit Rotem works as a child psychiatrist specializing in youth addictions. He’s a senior clinician at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, the largest mental health center in North America.

When he is not there, or with his family, there is a good chance he is playing his cello, with as many willing chamber partners as the calendar will allow.

Born and raised in Haifa, Israel, Amit, who is 53, grew up in a household where music was a serious pursuit from an early age. He first took up the recorder as a child, performing solo on alto recorder before making the switch to cello around age 11 or 12, just before his bar mitzvah.

That switch, he will tell you, was definitive. He went on to play with the Haifa Youth Symphony Orchestra, touring Europe and performing major symphonic repertoire, before his conductor steered him toward chamber music. He has never looked back.

Amit completed medical school at Ben-Gurion University and trained in child psychiatry before receiving a fellowship in Toronto roughly 15 years ago. The fellowship became a staff appointment, and Toronto became home. He and his wife, a nurse who specializes in palliative care, have three teenagers: an older son in college, a second son finishing 12th grade, and a 15-year-old daughter.

The cello, and chamber music, have been a constant for Amit. He plays about three times a month, with a regular pianist for duos and trios, and with two string quartets. Until last year he also performed with Orchestra Toronto, stepping back only when his schedule did not allow. Last summer, he attended an ACMP gathering at Chautauqua.

In the end, the cello for Amit is not an avocation. It is, as he puts it simply, “my psychotherapy.”

We talked with Amit recently about his musical journey. Answers have been edited for clarity and conciseness. – Bob Goetz

When did you start playing chamber music?

I started in the Haifa Youth Symphony Orchestra around age 10, and after a few years the conductor would recommend that the more serious players begin doing chamber music with their peers. I remember at 14 or 15 playing my first piece—the Beethoven duets for violin and cello. Then we formed a piano trio and played the Mozart B-flat major trio. Later, in medical school at Ben-Gurion University, some of my professors—ACMP members themselves—were looking for a cellist for their faculty quartet, so they called me in. They also introduced me to the Beit Daniel chamber music camp north of Tel Aviv, run by Joel Epstein. That’s where I first understood the ACMP idea: that there are serious amateurs everywhere who want to play, and you don’t have to limit yourself to the people around you.

What are your favorite works to play?

I’m pretty romantic in my tastes. My first choice would be the Brahms clarinet trio in A minor, Op. 114. Then the Beethoven string quartet Op. 59, No. 3—the third Razumovsky—particularly the second movement. And third, the Mozart string quintet in G minor, K. 516. It’s one of his last, greatest pieces. Magical. I’d also add that lately we’ve been playing more and more Shostakovich. Given what’s happening in the world, it’s very transformative—you’re able to project your anger into the music, and then keep going.

Is there a happy chamber music memory that stands out for you?

In 2018, we decided to bring chamber music into one of our inpatient units. Not as formal music therapy, just as an activity. I gathered four colleagues and we played a small recital for about 20 patients—young people, many of them experiencing it for the first time. We played accessible things, we talked a little, answered questions: What’s the difference between a violin and a cello? How do you make the sound? Who was Mozart? We expected them to be bored or want to leave. Instead, they sat completely still. They applauded and wanted more and more. I couldn’t sleep that night — I was so excited. Afterward, several of them said it had been a healing experience. That meant everything.

Who put you on the path to music?

My parents and grandparents. They took me to concerts with the Israel Philharmonic from a very young age — I remember traveling to Jerusalem to hear Isaac Stern play with Zubin Mehta. As for my cello itself, for my 30th birthday my wife arranged a beautiful surprise. The luthier who was restoring the instrument called her just before closing it up and asked if she’d like to place a dedication inside. She wrote something, and it’s still there—you can see it through the f-holes. It’s a 150-year-old cello from East Germany or something, and somewhere inside it is a note from my wife, just for me.