Music is just one part of the story:

An interview with Sterling Elliot

Acclaimed for his stellar stage presence and joyous musicianship, cellist Sterling Elliott has appeared with major orchestras such as the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Boston Symphony and the New York Philharmonic, and here for one afternoon only he played with students from Music Masters’ Pathways programme in the most beautiful surroundings of the V&A Main Hall.  The concert and preceding rehearsals are part of the work of the Robey Artist, an award made to a performer from a background currently under-represented in classical music, who also undertakes an ambassadorial role with Music Masters and our young musicians. These hugely talented children aged 8 – 11 form Pathways from across our Flagship Schools, receiving exceptional opportunities for additional learning and performance

The most surprising thing about chatting with Sterling however, is not how much he loves music and Ginger, his beautiful cello, but that he shares a love of precision engineering and classic cars with Jordan Bak, the violist who last held the post of Robey Artist (an award created with YCAT, the London-based Young Classical Artists Trust). We agreed that it must be something to do with that sense of specificity and precision that’s required for both music and engineering.  It certainly explains his passion for Ginger and for 1990s Japanese sports cars.  It turns out his dream is to own a Ferrari, and failing that a Toyota MR2, the only reason he doesn’t have one already? Because you can’t get a cello in it!

Which brings us neatly back to the cello.  I’m not quite sure if he’s joking when he says his mum needed a cellist for her quartet and that was what drove her decision to have a third child – but there was indeed a tiny cello waiting for baby Sterling.  But, like everything else in this conversation classical music is only one part of the story and Sterling is keen to stress how important a rounded music approach is to a person’s artistry.  His family quartet played everything from bluegrass to hip hop to Alicia Keys, classical music he believes ‘’is just one field of view, it is not an elite form.’’  Like Music Masters, he does believe however that an excellent classical education is the starting point to doing something new, ‘’instruments are limitless and young people are limitless.’’  You can judge that for yourself here