Rick Wakeman has played to what must be one of his most unusual audiences in his long career: an enclosure of 150 bears in Vietnam.
No jokes about a captive audience please – these bears have been rescued from a truly horrific life chained in cages, their bile extracted for use in traditional Chinese medicine. The practice has just been banned in Vietnam, but despite this, it’s still the fourth largest market in the illegal wildlife trade in East Asia.
Wakeman has long been a keen supporter of animal welfare and has rescue cats and dogs of his own. He set up his Yamaha piano outside the sanctuary at the Tam Dao national park and played some specially selected compositions for the animals.
Interviewed by the Guardian, the 77-year-old prog veteran said: “It’s a well-known fact that all animals react to music, especially gentle melodic music. So what I am going to do is piano music that is melodic, and I can only hope that they will come up to the perimeter of the sanctuary and have a listen.”
And as you can see from the video above, that’s exactly what some of the bears do, sniffing around near the perimeter and nodding their heads in appreciation before they find a perch to hear what Wakeman is playing.
Wakeman urged the Vietnamese government to do more to help the remaining bears that are still living in cages. “We have 150 bears at the sanctuary, but there are 125 bears left in cages in the old bear bile farms, and there are four dying a month. We have to get them out quick and into the sanctuary.”
The concert was organised by Animals Asia, which runs the sanctuary. Its CEO Dr Jill Robinson said of the performance: “We are beyond blessed to have Rick’s support for Animals Asia and the bears. His love for them is immeasurable and can be heard in the beautifully haunting music he has written for them.”
And Wakeman was clearly moved by what he saw: “If you see these bears it is hard to put into words, they are almost human the way they look at you. If you see them, you can’t help but be moved. They aren’t tame but they are very safe, very happy, they play, they romp. I witnessed two today jumping in a bubble bath and playing. They’ve got a life back.”
