Yo-Yo Ma

The cellist Yo-Yo Ma hardly needs an introduction. A global icon for decades, he has received countless awards and performed for eight U.S. presidents. He has recorded over 100 albums and won 19 Grammys. But Yo-Yo Ma has never been in it for the accolades — he considers himself a “citizen musician,” always looking for ways to help others. As the coronavirus crisis deepened, Ma found himself, like so many others, unsure what to do. So he sat and recorded a video of himself performing the song “Going Home” by Dvorak and posted it on Twitter. “In these days of anxiety, I wanted to find a way to continue to share some of the music that gives me comfort,” he tweeted, using the hashtag “#songsofcomfort.” The post garnered millions of views — so Ma added more. Days later, he recorded another performance, dedicating it to health workers on the frontlines of the COVID pandemic. Before long, #songsofcomfort had elicited an outpouring of contributions from across the classical music world as well as from musicians including James Taylor and The Indigo Girls. “It's really an invitation for everybody to join in,” Ma said. “This is what we can do for one another and be more communal.”