Sam Haywood has performed to critical acclaim in many of the world’s major concert halls.  He embraces a wide spectrum of the piano repertoire and is equally at home as a soloist, chamber musician or with accompanying Lieder. He has had a regular duo partnership with Joshua Bell since 2010 and also often performs with cellist Steven Isserlis. 

He has recorded two solo albums for Hyperion, one featuring the piano music of Julius Isserlis (grandfather of Steven Isserlis) and the other Charles Villiers Stanford’s preludes. He is passionate about period instruments and has made a recording on Chopin’s own Pleyel piano. 

 

In 2013 Haywood co-founded Solent Music Festival in UK. The annual Lymington-based festival features highly varied programmes by internationally-renowned artists with projects in the local community. Artists have included the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Alina Ibragimova, Mark Padmore and the Endellion Quartet. 

He was mentored by David Hartigan, Paul Badura-Skoda and Maria Curcio. Following his early success in the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition, the Royal Philharmonic Society awarded him the Julius Isserlis Scholarship. He studied both at the Universität der Künste in Vienna and at the Royal Academy of Music in London. 

Haywood enjoys working with young musicians. He 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® which can significantly reduce the time needed to memorise a music score, or indeed any printed text. 

Other passions include physics, natural history, technology, magic, fountain pens, kick-scooting and table tennis.