The cellist was making an appearance at Harvard University’s Sanders Theater with television host Stephen Colbert when strikers from the Harvard Graduate Student Union organized a picket and forced its cancellation.
The protesting graduates claimed that Yo-Yo Ma and Colbert crossed their picket line on their way to the scene.
This Cambridge Day report:
… Colbert and Ma were participating in a discussion titled “The Arts for the Love of Life” in front of a packed crowd when striking graduate students began protesting outside, shouting, blowing horns and banging drums, making it difficult to hear the speakers, especially Ma’s soft voice…
The program began at 7 p.m. with a 1976 film clip showing Ma, then a student at Harvard, participating in a master class with world-renowned Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich.
Next, the 11-member student ensemble Crimson Cellos performed to enthusiastic applause…
The noise from the striking students was not noticeable until Ma and Colbert began speaking and answering questions from the audience. Around 7:35 p.m., after Ma and Colbert answered three questions from the audience, the fire alarm went off. The public had to leave the premises.
Continue here.
Gn entert
