Mark Vinci is a musician, a professor, a lover of life, and now a coronavirus survivor.

Vinci, who is a well-known saxophone player and teacher at Juilliard contracted COVID-19 and was hospitalized and on oxygen for several days in March.

He has since recovered for the most part, and now plays the mini-trumpet each night at 7 pm to say thank you to the healthcare workers who saved his life at Weill Cornell Medical Center.

Mark says that while he was in the hospital he was receiving messages and well-wishes that he was unable to respond to, being so close to death.

So he hatched a plan and made a video inside the hospital and sent it out but the stunt caused three hours of coughing and the doctors recommended that he not do it again.

Mark's wife Jan, an accomplished flute player, was devastated by his sudden illness and hospitalization and when the doctors told her that she had to leave the hospital, she feared she would never see her husband again.