After receiving two doses of the vaccine, Yo-Yo Ma played the cello in the observation room at the vaccination site

The Paper's reporter Nan Boyi trainee reporter Wang Zhuoyi

Video screenshots

On the 13th local time, the famous Chinese cellist Ma Youyou (whose ancestral home is Yin County, Zhejiang Province, born in Paris, France) played Bach and Schubert's music in front of the crowd at a vaccination site in the United States after receiving the second dose of the new crown vaccine.

According to the Washington Post reported on the 15th, the staff of the vaccination site said that Yo-Yo Ma conducted his second new crown vaccination at Berkshire Community College in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, on the 13th. After the vaccination, Yo-Yo Ma sat down by a blue wall in the college gymnasium, while others, like Yo-Yo Ma, waited for their 15-minute post-vaccination observation time to end.

According to Leslie Drager, the lead clinical manager at the vaccination site, when Yo-Yo Ma started playing, the whole scene was quiet: "It's amazing, the whole building has become so quiet, there is just a little music." 」 ”

She said the nine nurse stations at the vaccination site injected 1,102 doses of the vaccine that day, all of which were second doses. Yo-Yo Ma came at the end of the day's work, "People were talking and walking around, and there were a lot of volunteers. Everyone was quiet, to watch, to listen. ”

Dräger said that Yo-Yo Ma left after the first dose of the vaccine, and most people did not notice him, but this time he brought his own cello.

Nurse Hilary Bashara said that she gave both doses of the vaccine by Yo-Yo Ma, and after receiving the vaccination on the 13th, Yo-Yo Ma first asked her if it was convenient for her to play here, and then picked a place in the observation room.

Video from the scene shows Ma sitting in a plastic chair by the wall wearing a mask while others who have been vaccinated sit scattered around him. Yo-Yo Ma plays Bach's prelude in G major, while in another video clip, Yo-Yo Ma also plays Schubert's Virgin Mary.

At the end of the song, people applauded and cheered, and Ma Youyou got up to salute.

Dräger admits: "Maybe that's the beginning of everything we're going to see in the summer of 2021." This is – we are all looking forward to the future, going out and getting our lives back on track. ”

A year before the inoculation point, Yo-Yo Ma shared a video of himself playing Dvořák's "Homecoming". On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization just declared COVID-19 to be pandemic-specific, when major performing and visual arts institutions across the country were gradually shut down. Yo-Yo Ma tweeted on March 13, 2020: "In these anxious days, I want to find a way to continue to share some music that brings me comfort. ”

In an interview with The Washington Post on Instagram in the summer of 2020, Yo-Yo Ma described how music has filled some of the gaps left by the decline in human connection during the pandemic: "Although you can't touch, you can't hug, and you can't shake hands, but music is 'moving air', so when the air floats over your skin and touches the hairs of your skin, it's touch, which is the closest someone can actually touch you." ”

Agence France-Presse reported on March 14, 2021, that during the epidemic, Yo-Yo Ma was active on social media, and he often used the hashtag #songsofcomfort ("Song of Comfort") to post fragments of his performances and call for the fair distribution of vaccines worldwide. Yo-Yo Ma also performed several online performances to commemorate the victims of the epidemic and pay tribute to the medical staff.

Editor-in-charge: Hu Zhenqing