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15-Year-Old Cello Prodigy to Make Debut at Chicago Symphony Center

Posted byBy Tia Berger | Published on: CommentsComments (0)

15-year-old Ifetayo Ali-Landing will make her Chicago professional debut next month in a pair of concerts with the Chicago Sinfonietta orchestra.

Ali-Landing is a teen cello prodigy whose talents won her some of the highest honors at musical competitions including her solo performance of “Lalo’s Concerto in D Minor” with the Sphinx Symphony Orchestra in Detroit, Michigan where she won the 2017 Junior Division First-Place Laureate.

The instrumentalist initially played the violin at the age of 3 but chose to switch to the cello. Music runs through her veins. In addition to several siblings and elders in her family playing an instrument, Ali-Landing’s mother also owns music school Hyde Park Suzuki Institute.

One of Ali-Landing’s concerts will take place at the Chicago Symphony Center, a place she feels honored to perform, especially for her age.

“It means a lot,” she told “Chicago Tonight” host Paris Schutz. “I’ve seen a lot of people perform there and I’ve always wanted to perform there, but now I get a chance to perform there with Melissa White,” a Black world renown violinist.

Landing said her musical influences are Mozart and Shostakovich, a Russian composer.

On wttw’s “Chicago Tonight” show, she performed classical’s “Allegro Appassionato in D Major” and “Song of the Black Swan” by Heitor Villa-Lobos.

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