Malik Muhammad is a violinist, violist, and composer based in Chicago. Beginning violin lessons at age 10 with Phyllis Calderon at A Touch of Classical Music School, he soon joined the Hyde Park Youth Symphony (HPYS), progressing from the Prep String Orchestra to the String Orchestra, where he played second-chair violin before transitioning to viola. He also performs in the HPYS Chamber Music Program and String Quartet.
A Chicago Musical Pathways Initiative (CMPI) Student Fellow since 2020, Malik has studied composition through the Civic Orchestra of Chicago’s program, working with Civic Fellows Joe Bricker and Hannah Christiansen. His piece Softly Blue (Suddenly) Grey premiered in the Civic Orchestra’s Chicago from Scratch! online concert. In 2022, he joined the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Young Composers Initiative, where he is now in his third year.
His composition Magnitude earned him national recognition on NPR’s From the Top as a 2025 Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award winner and was featured on Composer’s Café. Magnitude also led to Malik’s selection for the 2024–25 NOIS Young Creators Fellowship, culminating in the premiere of Trials for saxophone quartet at DePaul University.
His earlier work Recoverless was selected for the documentary What’s Left Behind, produced by University of Illinois Professor Ruby Mendenhall. Inspired by this collaboration, Malik developed Music to My Ears – A Balm from Bronzeville™, a music-based wellness initiative for overburdened healthcare and education workers. After winning Carle Illinois College of Medicine’s Health Make-a-Thon, he secured funding to launch a pilot project delivering live music performances in staff break rooms.
Malik has attended the Interlochen Academy of the Arts and the Elizabeth Morrow String Festival and has received awards from Lift Music Fund, the Music Link Foundation, and the Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award. He currently studies at the Merit School of Music’s Alice S. Pfaelzer Conservatory.
