(dramatic music) (footsteps walking) (instrument clanking) (lively music cello music) - I would say that the cello is...

It's my favorite instrument.

Maybe I'm biased.

It has a lot of range.

It can go super low, it can go super high.

It's very versatile.

You can play classical music, you can play jazz music, you can play R&B, you can play hip hop.

You can literally do anything you want.

(lively music cello music) (lively music cello music) Prior to me like knowing about the cello or learning classical music, I literally knew nothing about it.

I come from like a very gospel family, and my mom is very heavily involved in the church, and my dad is a super big hip hop head.

Like he loves hip hop and rap music.

So I, before, you know, getting introduced to the cello, I literally had no kind of like base to go off from about classical music.

I got started with the cello through an afterschool program called MYSO, Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra.

They had a program for third and fourth grade inner city students in Milwaukee.

The program was called the Progressions Program.

(instrument clanging) The significance of a program like Progressions, it just allows students to have access to resources, and to a wide array of musical education by top professionals in the city of Milwaukee, and also just all around the world.

So if it weren't for them, I wouldn't have been able to, you know, have access to those things.

My Progressions program teacher was actually my teacher from Progressions program until I graduated from high school, Ravenna Helson.

She became like a second mom to me.

- Let's make sure it's really straight.

One, two and three, four.

(metronome ticking) One, two and three four.

(lively music cello music) - I think every child should have an opportunity to see if they are musicians.

When Malik plays, from the very beginning, he had a voice that was clear and authentic, and so with Malik, it was really pulling him along to understand that the tools that he was learning were really gonna be helpful to him later on because he couldn't even dream about it when he was eight or nine, or 10 or 11.

- She always just challenged me to be a better person, better musician, just express myself in a way that I never have before and, you know, really try to connect with my audience or whoever I'm playing for.

There was a lot of times where I wanted to quit, especially like playing cello so young at a young age, you know, especially as a Black kid, there wasn't a lot of people who looked like me, you know, playing a classical instrument.

So she definitely just inspired me to just keep going and she knew I had a talent and it was something that I had to share with the world.

(lively music cello music) Some people know me as 99, The Producer, so yeah, I guess I got turned into him.

(Malik chuckling) So, yeah, 99 is my alter ego, I guess my performance name.

(lively music cello music) When I'm playing, I kind of envision myself just in my own world, doing my own thing, at peace, clear mind.

I imagine myself lifting off, floating somewhere.

I think about the people I love the most.

I think about what I'm playing, how it, you know, can connect with my audience.

But yeah, part of my mission growing up was like I wanted to kind of do something different with the cello.

I wanted to, you know, expand the boundaries of what people have already seen with the cello.

So I do find myself playing a lot of contemporary pieces and more like modern kind of songs.

(lively music cello music) I've been blessed.

I really have been blessed.

I was able to travel to Europe with MYSO when I was 14, 15, or I think 15 years old.

Definitely a lot of stuff with the Matt Jones Orchestra.

I've been able to work with Kirk Franklin.

We were on his Grammy award-winning album, "Long, Live, Love," which also led me to be on Tiny Desk with PJ Morton through NPR, record with John Legend on his Christmas album in 2018.

I've been able to produce for Masego.

I produced on his last album, "Studying Abroad," which got nominated for a Grammy.

What else?

(Malik chuckling) I remember people used to ask me like, "Malik, would you ever teach one day?"

I was like, "No."

(Malik chuckling) But teaching is so beneficial.

It's so helpful, it's so transformative.

(lively music cello music) I teach through the Wisconsin Conservatory and I'm placed at the Woodland School here in Milwaukee.

I'm happy that I can share this gift with others and, you know, inspire kids to play the cello or violin or viola or whatever they wanna play.

I hope my presence demonstrates that you can do anything that you wanna do.

(lively music cello music) I got started with the cello through classical music, but I've found myself being able to take my classical training and transform that into something very special.

(lively music cello music) I hope my story represents passion.

I hope it represents the fact that you can put, if you put your mind at anything, you can do it and you can succeed and be great at it.

(lively music cello music) (dramatic music)