Malik Kofi playing the cello: photo courtesy Mario Page
Malik Kofi is extraordinarily talented; a child prodigy, musical genius, awe-inspiring orator, with intellectual gifts well beyond his years. Not only is the 11-year-old academically brilliant but his superior musical abilities leaves audiences spellbound. An impressive multi-instrumentalist, Kofi plays the piano, drums and guitar. However, his passion is for the cello.
“Malik is a musical prodigy,” says Craig Hulgren, a cellist in the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, who has been Kofi’s teacher for the past five years. “He has advanced technological and interpretative abilities as a child. Beyond that he also puts in the hard work to develop those talents.”
Born into a working-class family in Birmingham, Alabama, Kofi’s unique story is a testimony to excellence against all odds. The product of a teenage mom, Kofi’s maternal grandmother, Ruby Cox, has raised him as her own since he was an infant. She says Kofi came out of the womb curious and eager to learn.