25-04-2025
Christian Elliott obituary: Cellist who adapted E.T. score and Beatles song
Christian Elliott was more than a cellist. He was also a composer, arranger, author and polymath. Nevertheless, his musical identity centred on the cello and for the past ten years he was a member of the Zehetmair Quartet, performing from memory with them at the Wigmore Hall in London, the Edinburgh International Festival and at concert halls across Europe.
Not content with playing only one cello part, during the Covid-19 lockdown he adapted works such as Bach's Goldberg Variations and Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht for multiple parts, recording himself playing each one and knitting them together electronically into a seamless performance. His arrangement of Flying Theme from John Williams's score for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial has nine cello parts, all of which he plays simultaneously in an
