Musician regains composure – Xinhua English.news.cn
Violinist Ma Weijia’s selection of books and musical scores at the quarantine hotel. [Photo provided to China Daily]
The violinist uses the time spent in a hotel room to listen to a classical experience, reports Chen Nan.
When Ma Weijia went to buy breakfast at a restaurant near his home in Beijing, the violinist didn’t expect it would lead to the start of a quarantine.
At 5 p.m. on April 30, he was informed that a patient, who had tested positive for COVID-19, was at the same restaurant on April 25, the same day as Ma, so the violinist was a close contact. secondary.
After Ma was informed of the quarantine, it was announced that all restaurants had been asked to suspend dine-in services from May 1 and offer only take-out instead, as the city struggles against the latest resurgence of COVID-19.
This raised a pressing question: what supplies should Ma have on hand to carry him around during quarantine?
Not knowing what to expect, Ma packed everything he could think of. The first things he added to his list were his violin, sheet music, tea, teapot and books.
“Frankly, I was very nervous. I didn’t expect to live in quarantine, but I wasn’t afraid because I did three tests after April 25 and all of them were negative,” recalls Ma, who , at 2 a.m. on May 2, went by bus to the quarantine hotel with others, who had also had indirect contact with infected patients.
Ma was in hotel is located in downtown Beijing. The hotel is old with simple decoration, and his room was about 10 square meters. Ma spent two hours cleaning her room and making it as comfortable as possible.
Three meals were provided daily in plastic bags (morning, afternoon and evening) and left on a chair outside the door for Ma to collect. Through that same door, medical personnel swabbed his nose and throat as part of daily nucleic acid testing requirements, as well as checking his body temperature twice a day.
“It was much better than I thought. Everything was fine, except I wasn’t allowed to leave the room,” Ma says, adding that people quarantined at the same hotel had WeChat groups in which the staff members helped them with various problems and offered the necessities. supplies, such as face masks, water and garbage bags.
In the morning, after her breakfast, her temperature check and her daily nucleic acid test, Ma would get in touch with her family and friends. After lunch he read books, drank his tea and started to play the violin. After dinner, he continued to play the violin for another two hours.
Carl Flesch’s Scale System, the primary study of scales for violinists, is a staple of Ma’s daily practice. Bach’s solo violin sonatas and pieces of music by Chopin and Niccolo Paganini were also among the scores Ma carried. in his hotel room.
