Photo: Lily LaRegina/Friends of Acadia/Facebook

Watch Yo-Yo Ma Give a Surprise Free Performance to Visitors at This National Park

News National Parks
by Olivia Harden Jun 23, 2021

Would you notice if you casually walked by one of the greatest cellists of all time? Well, you would if they were playing in the middle of a national park. Yo-Yo Ma gave two impromptu performances out in the open at Acadia National Park in Maine on June 17. The artist was hiding in plain sight with a baseball cap on during both performances — one at Jordan Pond House and the other at Otter Point.

Following the surprise at the national park, the cellist performed a sunrise concert at Schoodic Point in honor of secretary of the interior Deb Haaland, the first Indigenous cabinet secretary. At the sunrise concert, Yo-Yo Ma played alongside Wabanaki elders and other musicians before Haaland’s talk with the Wabanaki people about the cabinet’s support for public lands.

“What an honor to join Wabanaki elders, musicians and teachers in their tradition of welcoming the sunrise for the rest of the North American continent. Together with @acadiannps, @SecDebHaaland and other Maine cultural leaders, we spoke about how we can follow the wisdom of culture and nature to bring us hope as we emerge from the pandemic and build a future for humanity’s coming generations,” Yo-Yo Ma tweeted.

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