Award winning pianist Samantha Carrasco (née Newbold) has a wide-ranging career performing, examining, lecturing and teaching lessons and masterclasses.

She is a highly skilled soloist, accompanist, orchestral player and chamber musician and has developed an impressive reputation as a teacher and ensemble coach.

Samantha studied with Yonty Solomon at the Royal College of Music, London, where she was awarded an Exhibition Scholarship. She obtained a Bmus(Hons) degree in 1998, the ARCM teaching diploma and was subsequently awarded the Phoebe Benham and Leverhulme Junior Fellowship from the College. In 2001, Samantha won the prestigious Serena Nevill prize from the Concordia Foundation and later completed a Mmus performance degree with distinction in 2008 from Southampton University. She is currently working on a PhD entitled 'The Austen Family and Provincial Music Culture, 1770-1820', studying the music collection of Jane Austen and her family and has already contributed to a BBC Radio 4 programme entitled ‘Jane Austen’s ipod’. She has also given papers outlining her research at the RMA student conference amongst others with many performance-based lectures booked in the future.

Samantha Carrasco is in great demand as a recitalist, performing in London, festivals nationwide and all over the world. She has performed most of the major solo concerto repertoire including Grieg, Schumann, Tchaikovsky No.1, Rachmaninoff No.2, Mozart K466, K467 and K488 and Beethoven 3rd and 5th piano concertos. Samantha’s solo piano repertoire continues to expand in order to satisfy frequent concerto requests and recitals. She has also become a sought-after accompanist working in many differing duo partnerships and for the Associated Board.

Samantha has broadcast live on BBC Radio3 and Classic FM with the highly successful Newbold Piano Quartet. This prestigious quartet won the Rio Tinto Ensemble Award and Miller Trophy from the Royal Overseas League competition, the Parkhouse Award, the Tillett Trust Young Artists Platform and the Tunnell Trust Competition. It was selected by the Cavatina Chamber Music Trust and Live Music Now schemes and gave many performances and workshops to the wider community.

In 1999 Samantha performed both her Wigmore Hall and Purcell Room debuts to critical acclaim. She has since performed in all the major London venues including Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Barbican, St. Martins-in-the-Fields, St. James Piccadilly and Fairfield Hall, Croydon. Her versatile skills enabled her to develop very successful cross-over concerts of Classical to Jazz music, and she worked with a 10-piece band on major cruise lines worldwide including Cunard, Holland Amercia, Princess and Celebrity during 2002-2005.

Samantha continues to pursue her commitment to education. She is on the teaching staff at Southampton University and Winchester College and teaches privately. She regularly holds masterclasses for pianists, accompanists and ensemble groups as well as lecturing in performance principles. In 2006, Samantha founded ‘Southampton Recital Series’, a professional music society devoted to the promotion of classical music. Samantha currently examines for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music nationally and internationally in the fields of both classical music and jazz.