Musical volunteers get in tune with city's virus response management

"I always make sure to have a big smile when knocking on people's doors, because even though they might not see my face through the mask, I believe they can still feel the energy, and I can send a positive message."

Through her volunteer work, Poghosyan has become better acquainted with a lot of her neighbors, and joined lots of WeChat groups where people help each other out, and share tips on things like food shopping.

"I have seen many people in a bit of a low mood during the outbreak, so I decided to shoot videos and share warm messages on social media," she said. "I wanted people to see there are many expatriates like me, who do all kinds of nice things in the neighborhood they live in. I love the city as much as everyone else living here, and I hope it gets better soon."

The Shanghai Symphony Orchestra was forced to cancel its live concerts because of the outbreak, and so instead launched an online broadcast of its concerts at 7:30 pm every Friday.

The orchestra had scheduled a series of Mozart Wonder Box concerts this year. However, due to the latest outbreak, the orchestra has instead selected 20 pieces from its recordings over the years and put together an online collection of Mozart's works instead.

"Even though we had to cancel our upcoming concerts, we didn't want to stop playing music for the public," said Zhou. "We hope audiences will enjoy these highlight episodes, and when life goes back to normal, they can come to the live concerts better prepared."

Aside from the Mozart series, the orchestra has uploaded a "digital concert hall" containing dozens of its most popular repertoires to its website.

In 2020, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra launched a virtual classroom in which its principal instrumentalists conduct classes for the public. This year, the orchestra has expanded its public education program and invited musicians to recommend and interpret classical compositions.