He surprised the students by asking them to sing, rather than play, their Mozart piece.

He then encouraged them to maintain the “merry” and ”whimsical” aspects of the piece when they played, moving closely between the musicians on stage and encouraging them to “show off and have fun.”

He also advised the students to keep in mind what motivates them to play music, whether these motivations come from the “head, heart, ear, or the people around them.”

Keir D. Gogwilt ’13, one of the students who participated in the coaching session, found Ma’s approach enlightening.

“As a musician, I’ve been thinking about all of these ideas a lot, and Yo-Yo articulated them perfectly,” Gogwilt said. “It’s great to know that other musicians think about these things as well.”

The Silk Road Project’s residency concluded last night with a concert at Memorial Church, featuring performances from college students, Ma, and the Silk Road Ensemble, as well as a poetry reading from professor Homi K. Bhabha.

“I loved the innovation in all the pieces,” Keith W. Grubb ’13 said.

“They did things you’d almost consider absurd for classical music,” he added. “But once you hear it, you realize it’s actually brilliant.”

Ma said that he hoped that “inspiration” and “passion” were communicated as the central undercurrents informing the Silk Road Project’s residency at the GSE.

“Music involves thinking on every level,” he said. “You must hold in your head a number of different states of mind, you must have the big picture and also be incredibly precise.”

“Things start to sing when you hold these two moments,” he added.

The events at the GSE this week marked the first time the Silk Road Project has held a residency at a Harvard graduate school. Ma’s group has held events at the College for the past four years.

“Through disciplined imagination, and through passion, one makes the leap to developing an empathetic understanding of the world,” Ma said.