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Sam Haywood
Sam Haywood (born 16 April 1972, Brisbane) is a British pianist.

Career
British pianist Sam Haywood has performed to critical acclaim all over the world. His musical activities are wide ranging. Alongside his busy solo and chamber music career, he is also a prolific composer, transcriber and editor. He is passionate about bringing music to the widest possible audience and has worked on several educational projects, including writing a children’s opera and giving piano seminars in the Far East. Last year he gave a recital in Japan to raise money for musical instruments destroyed in the tsunami and also performed for the US and Chinese Vice-Presidents in Washington.

Chopin has been a central theme throughout Haywood's musical life. To celebrate the composer’s bicentennial year he made the first recording on Chopin’s own Pleyel piano of 1846. He used the same instrument to perform with Steven Isserlis at Lancaster House in the presence of HRH Duke of Kent. Chopin performed at the same venue, date and instrument in front of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in 1848. As a student he gave private performances of Chopin for Princess Diana and more recently played Chopin for a TED talk.

Following his early success in the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition, the Royal Philharmonic Society awarded him their prestigious Isserlis award. He went on to study with Paul Badura-Skoda in Vienna, where he began his enduring passion for opera. At the Royal Academy of Music in London he was mentored by Maria Curcio, the renowned teacher and pupil of Artur Schnabel.

Haywood is a regular partner to violinist Joshua Bell, with whom he also recently performed Schubert’s Trout Quintet with Edgar Meyer. Their next tours will take them to China, Europe and USA. He also often appears with cellist Steven Isserlis, with whom he will perform Schumann’s Piano Quintet at the Wigmore Hall for an anniversary celebration concert for the International Musicians’ Seminar Prussia Cove.

Outside his musical world he is passionate about wildlife, hiking in his native Lake District, magic, literature and technology. His recent use of an iPad and bluetooth footpedal for page-turning in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Chicago Symphony Hall and Disney Hall has generated a great deal of media interest.