Lancelot Henry Stuart Hayward (17 June 1916 – 9 November 1991[1]) was a jazz pianist who was born in Bermuda, where he lived until he settled in New York City at the age of 50.
[1] At the age of 13, he went to Perkins School for the Blind in Massachusetts, United States, where he learned to read books and music written in Braille, but he returned to Bermuda three years later, when he was 16.
[1] As his career developed as a jazz pianist, as well as an arranger, Hayward became the most sought-after pianist on the island, called to play for visiting singers including Carmen McRae, Joe Williams, Sarah Vaughan, Arthur Prysock and Marvin Gaye.
[2] He formed his own chorus, the Lance Hayward Singers, performing a wide variety of music, from Bach to Duke Ellington.
In 1991, at the age of 75, Lance Hayward died of pneumonia at Mount Sinai Hospital, in Manhattan, New York, where he lived.