Prominent cellist Steven Isserlis has a distinctive sound, created partly by the use of gut strings, and often performs Baroque and Classical-period music. He has written several books about classical music for children.

Born in London on December 19, 1958, Isserlis was the grandson of Russian composer and pianist Julius Isserlis; the elder Isserlis, on arriving in Vienna in 1922, was rejected for an apartment rental because a previous tenant -- Beethoven -- had the habit of spitting on the floor, and the 102-year-old landlady therefore did not want to rent to a musician. Isserlis is also related to Karl Marx and Felix Mendelssohn. His two sisters are both musicians, and family music-making was an important part of home life. After studies during his teens with Jane Cowan at the International Cello Centre (now the Edrom Casals Centre), Isserlis attended the Oberlin College Conservatory in Ohio, studying with Richard Kapuscinski and graduating in 1978. By that time, he had already launched his career, making his London debut in 1977. His recording debut came in 1985 with an album of the Brahms cello sonatas. That album appeared on the Hyperion label, for which Isserlis has continued to record over his entire career despite ventures into the catalogs of other labels.

Isserlis has performed with many of the world's major orchestras, including the London Symphony, Berlin Philharmonic, and Philadelphia Orchestra. He has often appeared with period-instrument ensembles as well, using a modern instrument (his cello has gut strings) but rehearsing with a period bow. An enthusiastic chamber music player, Isserlis has performed in a trio with violinist Joshua Bell and pianist Olli Mustonen, in a duo with pianist and fortepianist Melvyn Tan, and with other partners, including pianists Stephen Kovacevich and Stephen Hough, violist Tabea Zimmermann, and violinist Pamela Frank. In addition to music from earlier periods, Isserlis has a strong commitment to contemporary music; John Tavener's The Protecting Veil was written for him, and he has recorded and frequently performed the work. Other composers who have written music for Isserlis include Wolfgang Rihm, Elizabeth Maconchy, and Thomas Adès.

A unique feature of Isserlis' career is that he has written books about classical music for young listeners; these include Why Beethoven Threw the Stew (2001), Why Handel Waggled His Wig (2006), and Robert Schumann's Advice to Young Musicians: Revisited by Steven Isserlis (2016). He has also written children's stories that have been set to music by Anne Dudley. In 2017, his recording of the Haydn cello concertos was nominated for a Grammy Award. In 2021, Isserlis published a book for adults, The Bach Cello Suites: A Companion; his recording of those suites won the Gramophone Award for Best Instrumental Recording in 2007. Isserlis' programming concepts are varied and original; his 2022 recording A Golden Cello Decade, 1878-1888, featured works by Richard Strauss, Dvorák, and such lesser-known composers as Luise Adolpha Le Beau, Ernst David Wagner, and Isaac Nathan. By that year, Isserlis' recording catalog comprised well over 50 items. ~ James Manheim, Rovi