Steven Sharp Nelson: Mormon Musician
Steven Sharp Nelson is a musician and part of the award-winning group The Piano Guys. Fans wondered why the group is called “The Piano Guys,” when Nelson plays the cello. Consequently, he is often called “The Cello Guy.”
Nelson was born on July 5, 1977, in Salt Lake City. His father decided that each of his children should learn to play an instrument that was invented before the 1800s. At the age of seven, Nelson selected the violin for his instrument, but settled on the cello instead when his father brought one home and Nelson played the theme from the movie Jaws. From his mother, a professional opera singer, he learned a passion for music.
He plays numerous instruments, including the guitar and percussion. Nelson studied music at the University of Utah, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in music. But to make a living, he chose a career in real-estate development, always intending for music to be his passion, rather than his vocation. On the side he did studio and stage work with a variety of musicians. He contributed to over one hundred local CDs. He also released a few CDs of his own. Sacred Cello, released in 2006, earned him the Pearl Award for Best Instrumental Classical Album. It reached the top 20 on the Billboard charts top 20 classical recordings. Nelson released two additional solo albums: Tender Mercies in 2008 and Christmas Cello in 2010.
The Piano Guys formed when Jon Schmidt was in St. George, Utah, and needed a place to rehearse for an upcoming concert. He located a piano store owned by Paul Anderson and the two became friends. Anderson felt there was great potential in Schmidt, who was popular in Utah, but not nationally. He was looking for ways to promote his store more effectively and set up a Facebook page and YouTube channel featuring Schmidt, who already had eight albums and a large local following. When Nelson was fifteen years old, he was a featured guest artist at one of Schmidt’s concerts and continued to play at many of Schmidt’s concerts. In 2011, he became the second musician in the group, which was named after Anderson’s store, and quickly gained a following through YouTube. As of December 2014, the group has fifty videos and more than 500 million YouTube hits. They have close to 200 singles and six albums.
Nelson now allows music to be his full-time job. He is broadly considered a pioneer in exploring the versatility of the cello. He plays a wood, carbon fiber, steel, or electric cello in most of The Piano Guys music. He often uses his cello as a percussion instrument. He is also an award-winning composer, arranger, and entertainer. Many of The Piano Guys videos have a fun nature to them. Nelson once said that his “dream is to one day be a Victor Borge. I love the way he is able to use a spoonful of laughter to make people fall in love with classical music.”[1]
Nelson served a full-time mission to South Korea for [http://Mormon.org The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, of which he is a member. He and his wife, Julie, are the parents of four children.
