“In an airy, sunny gymnasium on Saturday afternoon, under basketball hoops and banners, in front of people freshly pricked and waiting for minutes to pass, Yo-Yo Ma played a little Bach,” writes Paulina Firozi in Sunday’s (3/14) Washington Post. “The world-renowned cellist, who is 65, had gone to the vaccination clinic at Berkshire Community College in Pittsfield, Mass., for his second coronavirus vaccine dose…. After getting his shot, he took a seat along a padded blue wall of the gym, near others waiting out their 15-minute post-vaccination observation time, and surprised them with a performance. Leslie Drager, the lead clinical manager for the vaccination site, said that when Ma started to play, … ‘Everybody just went quiet and went to watch and listen,’ Drager said…. Videos … show Ma masked and seated along a wall. Vaccine recipients are scattered and seated nearby as he played the prelude to Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major [and] ‘Ave Maria.’ ‘It just brought that whole room together,’ [nurse Hilary] Bashara said.… Drager said, ‘Maybe this is the beginning of what we’re going to see this summer … to get out and get our lives back.’ ”
Change font size