Hospital musician plays again after stolen cello is returned

A musician who brings comfort to patients in hospital has been reunited with her cello after it was stolen.

Ivy Wang is a nursing student at the University of Alberta who also spends time at the Stollery Children's Hospital helping patients with her other skills.

"I play cello around in the hospital to calm people and de-stress," said Wang.

Since she was 12, Wang has been playing the instrument.

Wang's played the cello as part of school orchestras and now, she plays in the hallways and the healing garden at the Stollery.

"I usually do classical (music), but I started picking up some pop and trending music," Wang said.

On Jan. 10, Wang left her cello in the Fine Arts building at the university, afraid of damaging it by bringing it into the cold. The next day, EPS officers with the transit community safety unit noticed a man in the Churchill Transit Station had a cello with him.

"It's just rare, I mean, it's almost midnight… I've never seen anyone with a cello before," said Cst. Mike Rott.

"We did ask him if he knew how to play… one of the statements he made was he didn't know how to play the cello, which makes you suspicious that it's probably not his."

The cello was seized as stolen property, but when officers looked to see if one had been reported stolen, there weren't any.

"We waited about a week and then still nothing," said Rott. "So it ended up being a roundabout way, we did a Google search for a name that she (the owner) had written in a piece of music."

Wang had discovered it was missing and reported it the day before police reached out to inquire if the one they found was hers. She's happy to have it back and grateful it wasn't damaged.

"I just need to retune the strings, but everything — the wood, the power of the cello — is all perfect," said Wang.

"When you can reunite somebody with something like that, that they hold with value in their minds… it's always nice," added Rott.

Wang is now keeping the cello locked up safe and sound to prevent this from happening again.

With files from CTV News Edmonton's David Ewasuk