Rick Wakeman performs piano concert for rescued moon bears in Vietnam

Musician Rick Wakeman, best known as the former keyboardist of the progressive rock band Yes, gave an unusual performance this week: a piano concert for an audience of rescued moon bears at a sanctuary in Vietnam.

Wakeman played to an enclosure housing around 150 bears that have been rescued from captivity, according to organizers of the event. The animals were among those that had previously been kept on so-called bile farms, where bears are confined in small cages and have bile extracted from their gallbladders for use in traditional medicine, a practice that has drawn sustained criticism from animal welfare groups.

Raising awareness

The performance was organized to raise public awareness of the plight of moon bears that remain in captivity on bile farms, even as rescue efforts continue to move more animals into sanctuary settings. Wakeman, who has performed for audiences around the world over a career spanning decades with Yes and as a solo artist, said the sanctuary visit gave him an entirely new kind of audience.

Bile farming has been the target of long-running campaigns by conservation and animal welfare organizations, which argue that the practice causes significant suffering to the bears involved and that alternatives to bear bile exist in both traditional and modern medicine. Sanctuaries in Vietnam and elsewhere in Southeast Asia have worked in recent years to rescue bears from these farms and provide them with more natural, spacious enclosures.

Organizers said they hope high-profile visits such as Wakeman's concert will help keep public attention on the issue and support continued rescue and rehabilitation work for bears that remain in captivity.