Yo-Yo Ma Offers a Shock Live performance at Vaccination Web site

The world-famous cellist Yo-Yo Ma gave a surprise concert on Saturday at a vaccination center in Massachusetts.

Mr Ma, 65, who lives part-time in Berkshires, spent 15 minutes in observation after receiving his second dose of a Covid-19 vaccine at Berkshire Community College in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. He “wanted to give something back,” Richard Hall of the Berkshire Covid-19 Vaccine Collaborative told The Berkshire Eagle.

Clips shared by the Community College on Facebook show the masked musician sitting against a wall with his cello, staying away from other people who are being watched after the vaccination. The songs included “Ave Maria” and Bach’s Prelude in G major.

His post-vaccination performance came a year to the day after he first posted on Twitter about his #SongsOfComfort project and shared a replay of himself playing Dvorak to soothe an anxious public as in the US and elsewhere lockdowns began. Other musicians, both professionals and amateurs, soon joined. In December Ma and British pianist Kathryn Stott released Songs of Comfort and Hope, an album inspired by the project.

Last year, Mr. Ma also made a series of pop-up performances with classic pianist Emanuel Ax for small groups of bus drivers, firefighters, health care providers and other key workers in the Berkshires.

“People need one another to get support that goes beyond their immediate livelihoods,” Ma told the New York Times in November. “You need music.”

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