I found the elite scientists to be highly creative. Many had avocations in the music or artistic areas of course. I surmise many could have been musicians (some were in fact), but I doubt many artists could become PhD scientists in a STEM field. I don't think one can be an elite scientist without being creative, and curious.
I did have a trumpet major in one of my senior chem labs at UNC. He told me he just liked chemistry, most of the other students were headed to med school.
He was a sharp cookie. My neighbor who was a physics professor at Tech is a tremendously good photographer, mostly of wild life in Africa.