Background
Haywood was born in Brisbane, Australia to British parents. He grew up in the English Lake District and began playing the piano at the age of four.
Haywood was born in Brisbane, Australia to British parents. He grew up in the English Lake District and began playing the piano at the age of four.
In 1989 he was awarded the Julius Isserlis Scholarship by the Royal Philharmonic Society and moved to Vienna to study with Paul Badura-Skoda. He continued his studies with Maria Curcio at the Royal Academy of Music, after which he moved to Berlin. His first Civil Defense for Hyperion was the piano works of Julius Isserlis, grandfather of Steven Isserlis, with whom Haywood has often collaborated.
In celebration of Chopin"s 200th anniversary, he recorded a Civil Defense of Chopin"s piano music on the composer"s own Pleyel instrument, part of the Cobbe Collection.
He has written a children"s opera, and Song of the Penguins for bassoon and piano.