Ma offered an impromptu show after receiving his vaccine on Saturday.
For the past year, world-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma has been working to provide comfort and support for those who may be struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Saturday, he transformed a Massachusetts vaccination clinic into a temporary concert hall, at a time that residents called a symbolic representation of the “light at the end of the tunnel”.
Ma, 65, received his second chance, alongside his wife, Jill Hornor, at Berkshire Community College in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, on Saturday.
When he arrived at the clinic carrying his cello, the nurse who gave him the vaccine asked if he would be willing to use his 15-minute observation period to offer a brief concert to those in the waiting room.
The famous cellist was “delighted,” Richard Hall of the Berkshire COVID-19 Vaccine Collaborative told ABC News, as he wanted to “give something back to the community.”
Wearing a cap and a T-shirt, Ma sat masked and socially distanced from the others while playing a series of classic selections, including Franz Schubert’s “Ave Maria” and Johann Sebastian Bach’s No. 1 cello suite in G major, Prélude.
“I think everyone was thrilled to hear him play,” said Hall.
Berkshire County, Massachusetts, is known for its artistic community and, after a year in which the arts were largely silenced, “it was very special to hear him play the cello,” Hall said.
A year ago, when the pandemic started, Ma started an online series entitled “#SongsOfComfort”, in an effort to offer comfort and ease anxieties “in the face of fear and isolation”.
“In these days of anxiety, I wanted to find a way to continue to share some of the music that gives me comfort,” wrote Ma on Twitter, exactly one year before receiving his second chance.
His social media project, which started out as short videos shot at home, soon expanded into a worldwide effort that reached more than 18 million people, according to Ma’s website.
In December, Ma and pianist Kathryn Stott released an album entitled “Songs of Comfort and Hope”.
“The songs are little time capsules of emotions: they can contain long-lost dreams and desires and feelings of great spirit, optimism and unity,” wrote Ma and Stott when announcing the album. “The songs bring a sense of community, identity and purpose, crossing borders and uniting us in thanks, comfort and encouragement.”