Valentina Irlando is an Italian musician best known for her viral videos playing both the cello and the piano. Her inspirational story has caught the attention and hearts of millions of people around the world. On her Instagram, which has nearly 20k followers, she describes herself as, “Teen Concert Cellist Who Never Gives Up, Sharing Her Love for Music and the Cello…”
Born on the 25th of February 2006, the young cellist has overcome her physical limitations to pursue her musical passion. Valentina was born with a rare muscle condition which meant she had to be in a wheelchair for as long as she can remember, however, it hasn’t stopped her from becoming an accomplished pianist and cellist by anyone’s standards.
Valentina’s love for music has become a therapy, telling Classic FM, “For me playing piano is the best medicine!”. Her grandfather always wanted a musician in the family, so he persuaded Valentina’s parents to buy her a toy piano to try and inspire the young girl. Within minutes of playing the toy piano, she fell in love with it!
This love for the piano didn’t progress much over the following few years until Valentina was about 13 years old. She felt something was missing from her life and when she realised it was music she started playing the piano again and videoing her progress to upload to the internet. Her videos went down a storm and have landed her tens of thousands of followers and millions of views! Since then she has added the cello to her growing list of instruments she can play!
In many of her videos she thanks her teacher, Credici, for the support saying, “I would like to thank my teacher for believing in me and for always supporting me, even when what I wanted to do was impossible,”.
If you want to watch more from this inspirational young musician follow her on Instagram or on her official Facebook page.