16-year-old cellist Ifetayo Ali-Landing of Chicago performed on Introductions last year when she was 15-years-old. On Saturday, July 27 at 7:30 pm, Ifetayo will make her Chicago Symphony Orchestra debut at the Ravinia Festival in a program called “Leonard Bernstein: Man for All Music.” Today, we feature Ifetayo’s 2018 Introductions performance in celebration of this achievement!
Ifetayo began her musical studies on violin and switched to cello at age four. Her teachers and coaches have included Lucinda Ali-Landing, Megan Lauterbach, and Martine Benmann at the Hyde Park Suzuki Institute in Chicago, as well as Tahirah Whittington, Oleksa Mycyk, and Hans Jørgen Jensen. She has also studied with teachers at the Chicago Suzuki Institute (Deerfield, IL), Illinois Wesleyan University, Sphinx Performance Academy, Meadowmount School of Music, and the Young Artists Program.
Ifetayo was the 2017 Sphinx Competition Junior Division First-Place Laureate and performed as soloist with the Sphinx Symphony Orchestra at Orchestra Hall in Detroit. At the 2016 Sphinx Competition, she was awarded Second-Place Laureate in the Junior Division. Ifetayo was also one of the winners of the 2016 DePaul Concerto Festival for Young Performers and performed as soloist with the Oistrakh Symphony Orchestra. She has also performed with the Wilmington (NC) Symphony, New World Symphony, and Detroit Symphony.