On the Midweek programme in January 2014, Isserlis revealed that on arrival in Vienna in 1922, his pianist grandfather and father found a flat, but the 102-year-old landlady refused to take in a musician, because her aunt had a previous musician tenant who was noisy and would spit on the floor-this tenant was Ludwig van Beethoven. His grandfather, Julius Isserlis, who was a Russian Jew, was one of 12 musicians allowed to leave Russia in the 1920s to promote Russian culture, but he never returned. Isserlis has described how 'playing music, playing together', was an integral part of his early family life. His sister Annette is a viola player, and his other sister Rachel is a violinist. His mother was a piano teacher, and his father was a keen amateur musician. Isserlis was born into a musical family in London. Isserlis currently plays on the 1726 Marquis de Corberon cello made by Antonio Stradivari on loan from the Royal Academy of Music. He is also one of the only two living cellists inducted into the Gramophone Hall of Fame. His recordings have garnered two Gramophone Awards, a Classical BRIT Award, a BBC Music Magazine Award, and two Grammy Award nominations among others. Isserlis is the recipient of numerous awards including the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award in 1993, the Robert Schumann Prize of the City of Zwickau in 2000, and both the Wigmore Hall Medal and Glashütte Original Music Festival Award in 2017. He is also noted for his diverse repertoire and distinctive sound which is deployed with his use of gut strings.

An acclaimed soloist, chamber musician, educator, writer and broadcaster, he is widely regarded as one of the leading musicians of his generation. Steven Isserlis CBE (born 19 December 1958) is a British cellist.

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