Sam Rodwell completed his undergraduate at The Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester with a first class honours degree studying with Craig Ogden. He is now continuing his studies by doing a Masters in performance also at the RNCM. In his very first term he won the String Department 'Salon Prize' making him the first guitarist to win this competition for nearly 30 years. Also during his first year at college Sam performed on guitar, banjo and ukulele in Shostakovich's rarely performed Paradise Moscow, played at Craig Ogden's Bridgewater Hall Guitar Weekend and gave a solo lunchtime recital in the Cosmo Rodewald Concert Hall at the RNCM. He later went on to attain a place as a finalist in the highly prestigious ‘Gold Medal’ competition. In May 2013 he was invited to perform in front of over 1,500 people as a soloist as part of a charity event, raising money for Loros at the De Montfort Hall. In 2016 he made his television debut on Sky arts whilst taking part in ‘Guitar star’ making it to the final 8 and being featured in 6 out of 9 episodes.
While doing many performances internally and externally of the RNCM, he started working for Yamaha promoting their classical guitars through performances and videos on Amazon.
Sam has been playing the classical guitar since the age of 8 and attained his ATCL Diploma with a Distinction in 2010. He has performed in many festivals and concerts both in the UK and in Germany. Prior to coming to the RNCM, Sam worked extensively with Mark Ashford as part of ‘Guitar Circus’ in Birmingham, taking part in performances at the ‘World Youth Guitar Festival’ in Winchester and at the Winchester Guitar Festival. He has performed in masterclasses for artists including David Russell, Gary Ryan, Michael Lewin, Gordon Crosskey and Julian Byzantine.
Sam plays a 2006 Christopher Dean guitar.
