Cellist Yo-Yo Ma's Harvard talk with Stephen Colbert cut short by fire alarm
The gist
A fire alarm ended cellist Yo-Yo Ma's Harvard talk with Stephen Colbert after just three questions.
Striking graduate students picketed outside; the union says the pair crossed its picket line.
How it unfolded
- Oct 27, 2026Harvard graduate student workers walked off the job, leaving classes untaught and research disrupted, to pressure the university into a new contract.
- Nov 5, 2026The program began at 7 p.m. with a 1976 film clip of Ma as a Harvard student in a master class with cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, followed by a performance by the 11-member student ensemble Crimson Cellos.
- Nov 5, 2026At about 7:35 p.m., after Ma and Colbert had taken just three questions, a fire alarm sounded and the audience had to leave; the talk did not resume, with possible plans to reschedule.
Key terms
- picket line
- A form of protest where people gather outside a workplace to pressure the target and discourage entry.
- strike
- A vote by workers to decide whether to take collective action by refusing to work.
- SAG-AFTRA
- American labor union representing media professionals, formed in 2012 by merging the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.
Source: Wikipedia