Renowned cellist entertains commuters
MONTREAL — A Montreal subway station played host to an unusually talented busker on Saturday as world renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma entertained a rapt crowd during a brief free concert.
Ma, 63, played both alone and accompanied by local poets, and ended the 20-minute show by inviting the crowd to sing along with what he called “the song that, for me, means Montreal”: Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah.
The event, which was co-organized by entertainment company Lembas Works, was billed as a way to “explore connections and disconnections in contemporary lives.”
The Chinese American cellist sat on a plastic chair, smiling and gesturing at the crowd as he played in front of a black and white screen.
The audience sat or kneeled on the floor in a cordoned-off section of the platform, while crowds of commuters streamed by only feet away, hustled along by transit authorities.
Ma was accompanied by live poets, who were invited to read their works at the microphone, but also by bird chirps and other pre-recorded sounds.
In fluent French, he invited the audience to contemplate the music, and how it interacted with the sound of the city and the distant trains.
“The music of the metro, everything in life, the church bells we heard, it unites us, it dignifies us,” he said.
The French-born cellist’s concert was part of what his website calls a “day of action” aimed at exploring the topic of culture and its role in humanizing technology.