Steven Isserlis

Steven Isserlis is a leading British cellist, appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1998. He was also awarded the Schumann Prize by the City of Zwickau in 2000. Born in London on 19 December 1958 into a musical family, including his grandfather Julius Isserlis, who moved to Vienna in 1922, while his mother was a piano teacher and his father a violinist. After lessons at the City of London School, he studied in Scotland with Jane Cowan, then at the Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio (United States) and with Daniil Chafran, whom he considers his master. A fan of traditional gut string instruments, the cellist has had a solo career punctuated by collaborations, notably with Peter Evans, Joshua Bell, Pacal Devoyon, Christoph Eschenbach, Michael Tilson Thomas, Andrew Litton, Robert Levin, Stephen Hough, Maggie Cole, Dénes Varjon, Olli Mustonen, Thomas Adès, Connie Shih and Jeremy Denk. Open to all eras and aesthetics, the virtuoso has an immense repertoire, both in chamber music and in pieces for soloist or with orchestral accompaniment. His recordings include works by Boccherini, Haydn, Bach, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Schumann, Schubert, Dvořák, Bruch, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Prokofiev, Kabalevsky, Richard Strauss, Shostakovich, Elgar, Walton, Martinů and Tavener, with a special emphasis on French composers such as Saint-Saëns, Fauré, Chausson, Ravel and Messiaen. His recorded recitals include Cello World (1998), Bach: Cello Suites (2007), ReVisions (2010), Lieux Retrouvés (2012), In the Shadow of War (2013), The Cello in Wartime (2017), Cello from Proust's Salons (2021) and A Golden Cello Decade 1878-1888 (2022). In 2024 was issued Boccherini: Cellos Concertos, Sonatas & Quintets. Steven Isserlis is also the author of the children's collections Why Beethoven Threw the Stew (2001) and Why Handel Waggled His Wig (2006), of tales set to music by Anne Dudley and of the album Children's Cello (2006).