IPPOLITO, Carmela

Carmela Ippolito was born in Boston in 1902 to Vincenza Fiandaca and Pasquale Ippolito. Early clippings describe her as a North End girl; later clippings from when she was around 20 years old reference her living in East Boston with her family. It was difficult for me not to go down an extensive rabbit hole searching for more information about Ippolito, as there were a rather large number of news stories reported on her remarkable talents. Ippolito played a mandolin solo in Tremont Temple when she was four years old “for the benefit of Sicilian earthquake sufferers.” She was accompanied by the Boston Symphony Orchestra as a violin soloist at age 20. She studied at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia under Efrem Zimbalist, a Russian and American concert violinist, composer, and conductor who by age 21 was considered one of the world’s greatest violinists. Ippolito was based in New York City for at least part of the 1930s-40s, playing regularly at concert halls and booking recital tours.