Sam Walton studied timpani and percussion at the Royal Academy of Music, where he received the Queen’s Commendation award for the most outstanding student, the Zildjian Percussion Scholarship and the James Blades Timpani Prize.

In 1996, Sam won the percussion section of the BBC Young Musicians competition and appeared in the televised Concerto Final. In the same year, he also won the bronze medal in the Shell/London Symphony Orchestra competition.

He appears regularly as a percussionist and timpanist with many of the UK’s top orchestras, including the London Symphony, London Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, London Sinfonietta and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. He also works in the West End theatres on a variety of shows.

As a soloist, Sam has appeared with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Orquesta de Castilla y Leon, and the Gurzenich Orchestra in Cologne. He has appeared both as a solo recitalist and with his duo partner Colin Currie at numerous venues in the UK and worldwide.

As a chamber musician, Sam has recorded a recital disc with Colin Currie for EMI Classics, played the Bartok Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion with Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Tamara Stefanovich, performed on Viktoria Mullova’s album “Through the Looking Glass,’ travelled with the 4-Mality percussion quartet to Taiwan and Australia and has recorded and performed extensively in Europe, the Far East, Australia and the UK with the ensemble Between the Notes. He has also performed as a soloist at the BBC Proms in a concert of percussion works by Steve Reich.