About this Artist
SAM HAYWOOD has performed to critical acclaim in many of the world’s major concert halls. As a chamber musician he is a regular duo partner of Joshua Bell and Steven Isserlis, and he performs with many leading chamber ensembles.
For Hyperion he has recorded the piano works of Russian pianist-composer Julius Isserlis, grandfather of cellist Steven Isserlis. His latest album, Composers in Love, brings together both well-loved and lesser-known music inspired by composers’ muses. To celebrate Chopin’s bicentennial year, Haywood made the world première recording on Chopin’s own Pleyel piano, part of the Cobbe Collection at Hatchlands. He is also featured on Joshua Bell’s Musical Gifts for Sony Masterworks. He has broadcast widely in USA and Europe and was recently a guest on BBC Radio 4’s Midweek.
Following Haywood’s early success in BBC Young Musician of the Year, the Royal Philharmonic Society awarded him their prestigious Isserlis Award. He studied with Paul Badura-Skoda in Vienna, where he began his enduring love affair with opera. At the Royal Academy of Music in London, he was mentored by the great teacher Maria Curcio, a pupil of Artur Schnabel.
Private audiences have included Princess Diana, HRHs Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, Hillary Clinton, and Xi Jingping, President of China.
Haywood is co-founder and Artistic Director of the Solent Music Festival, which combines recitals by internationally renowned artists with projects in the local community. He attaches great importance to his work with young people. He is an Ambassador to the West Lakes Academy, has written a children’s opera, and is regularly involved in family concerts, workshops, and master classes. His Song of the Penguins, for bassoon and piano, is published by Emerson Editions.
He is also the inventor of memorystars (memory-stars.com), which can dramatically reduce the time needed to memorize a music score, or indeed any printed text.
His many passions include inspiring science lectures, natural history, technology, magic, scooting, table tennis, and chess.