SAM HAYWOOD

‘Passionate flair and sparkling clarity’
New York Times

<a href="https://samhaywood.bandcamp.com/album/chopin-arr-haywood-romance-rondo-from-piano-concerto-in-e-minor">Chopin arr. Haywood: Romance & Rondo from Piano Concerto in E minor by Sam Haywood</a>

I was born to British parents in Brisbane, Australia. At the age of two I was given a toy piano with coloured keys and with it a lifelong love of music. Two years later, we inherited my Dad’s mother’s piano. She had been a music teacher for children with special needs.

My own teacher David Hartigan was a great inspiration and friend during my formative years. At thirteen I reached the final stages of BBC Young Musician of the Year, which led to my first public performances.

The Royal Philharmonic Society’s Julius Isserlis Scholarship took me to Vienna, named, as I later discovered, after the grandfather of Steven Isserlis. Steven and I became friends, performed together often, and I recorded Julius’s piano works for Hyperion.

In Vienna, Paul Badura-Skoda combined his natural instinct for music making with a vast knowledge of historical performance practice. And at the Royal Academy of Music, Maria Curcio could make you cry with the way she shaped a phrase. I feel so privileged to have learnt from these two great musicians. Only later did I realise the truth of much of what they told me.

Since then I have had the good fortune of performing all over the world both as a soloist and with wonderful musicians, including my friend Joshua Bell, with whom I made my Carnegie Hall debut. We performed in many of the great American and European venues. Amongst my favourites were Symphony Center in Chicago and the Tonhalle in Zurich. Most recently we had a fascinating tour of China.

I especially love Indonesia, where I initially worked with Mutia Dharma, a young promoter passionate about bringing Western music to her country. She died tragically young, but her memory is a constant inspiration whenever I perform or teach there.

I am fascinated by the instruments the great composers knew and wrote for. For Chopin’s bicentenary I had the honour of recording an album on his own Pleyel piano, part of the Cobbe Collection. One of my most cherished memories was performing Chopin privately for Princess Diana. The warmth for which she was so widely known was unmistakable.

I also derive great pleasure from the Solent Music Festival, which I founded with my wife Sophia in 2013. Many of our fellow organisers and audience members now feel like extended family. And it is a particular joy to see that my two young sons share that same love of music — and to rediscover some of my own childhood wonder through them.

PROGRAMMES

BEETHOVEN 200 ANNIVERSARY PROGRAMME

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827): Prelude in F minor, WoO 55
Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849): Prelude in B♭ minor, Op. 28 No. 16
Beethoven: Sonata in C minor, Op. 13 ‘Pathétique’
Chopin: Ballade No. 4 in F minor, Op. 52

INTERVAL

Beethoven: Polonaise in C major, Op. 89
Chopin: Polonaise in C minor, Op. 40 No. 2
Beethoven: Sonata in E minor, Op. 90
Chopin: Romance and Rondo from Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11 (arr. Sam Haywood)