Air and Simple Gifts is a classical quartet composed and arranged by American composer John Williams for the January 20, 2009, inauguration of Barack Obama as President of the United States. The first public performance of the piece was in Washington, D.C., immediately prior to Obama taking the oath of office, when musicians Anthony McGill (clarinet), Itzhak Perlman (violin), Yo-Yo Ma (cello) and Gabriela Montero (piano) synced their performance to a tape they had recorded two days earlier. It was the first classical quartet to be performed at a presidential inauguration. Obama officially became the President while the piece was being performed, at noon, as the United States Constitution stipulates.

Although it appeared that the piece was being performed live, it was in fact pantomimed while a recording made two days previously was fed to the television pool and speakers. Yo-Yo Ma told NPR's All Things Considered that the piano keys had been decoupled from the hammers, and the bows of the stringed instruments had been soaped to silence them. The performers stated that the cold weather could have affected the tuning and durability of the instruments, making a live performance too risky.