Sam Haywood has performed to high critical acclaim all over the world as concerto soloist, recitalist and chamber musician. He has recorded extensively for radio and CD, his latest release being the first recording to have ever been made on Chopin's own Pleyel piano of 1846. This year he has been touring America and Europe with Joshua Bell and the UK with Steven Isserlis. Future engagements will include solo and chamber music recitals in Germany, France, Indonesia, Japan, Poland, Austria, Russia, Romania, Switzerland, Greece, USA and the Czech Republic.

Sam began playing the piano at the age of four, inspired by evenings listening to crackly Beethoven LPs with his Grandmother in the English Lake District. Following his success at the age of thirteen in the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition (to watch an extract click here), the Royal Philharmonic Society gave him with their prestigious Isserlis Award. He went on to study in Vienna with Paul Badura-Skoda and at the Royal Academy of Music with the late Maria Curcio, a pupil of Artur Schnabel.

Alongside the mainstream repertoire, Sam is keen to include lesser-known works in his solo recital programmes. Rosetti, Gade, Franz Xaver Mozart, Alkan, Field, Isserlis, McLeod (commission) and Hummel have recently featured in his programmes. He has also edited a new edition of piano works by Julius Isserlis and Carl Frühling's Clarinet Trio.

Sam has composed several small-scale works for solo piano and various duos, including the Song of the Penguins, published by Emerson Editions. The director of the film "March of the Penguins", which inspired the piece, wrote: of "The general ambience is one of sadness, yet so much hope and optimism manage to break through. The Song of the Penguins takes us on a journey its own." He is also regularly involved in educational projects and has co-written a children's opera. To celebrate the Chopin anniversary, he recently made a transcription of the Romance from Chopin's First Piano Concerto.

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