Page 188 - FINAL_Guildhall Media Highlights 2019-2020 Coverage Book

11 May 2020

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer plays flute,

recorder and piano, and was a Guildhall music

scholar

Sir Keir Starmer plays flute, recorder and piano, and was a Guildhall music scholar. Picture: Getty

By Maddy Shaw Roberts

Classical music is an important part of life for one of the UK’s foremost politicians, who
has a particular passion for Beethoven piano sonatas.

Before he became a human rights lawyer, or leader of the opposition, it seems Sir Keir
Starmer was something of a musical prodigy. In his early years he played the flute, piano,
recorder and violin, and was once a young scholar at the Guildhall School of Music in
London.

The former barrister, who was elected to succeed Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the Labour
Party this April, spoke about his early musical years in an interview with On The
Hill magazine, in answer to a question about his passions (which, he says, are “music,
classical music”).