Sean Godden was born in London, England, in 2005. Having moved to Macau, China, at the age of less than a year, he began studying the piano at the age of 6.

In June 2024, Sean won the Jury Special Prize for Excellence in the Concours Ile-de-France Piano Competition in Paris.

The following year, Sean was awarded First Prizes in both the EPTA UK National Piano Competition and the RNCM’s annual Mark Ray Piano Recital Prize. He was then granted the RNCM Marjorie Clementi Award, not to mention being featured in the magazine Piano Professional shortly after.

Sean performed Brahms’ Second Piano Concert with the Shrewsbury Sinfonia in April 2026 under the baton of Martin Cook at Shrewsbury Abbey and made his debut as a new artist for the Keyboard Charitable Trust at London’s Steinway Hall two months prior.

In July 2026, Sean was invited to participate in the inaugural Liszt Festival in Istanbul, Turkey, where he worked closely with internationally acclaimed pianists Mariam Batsashvili, Grigory Gruzman and Andrea Bonatta in a series of masterclasses. The following week, he travelled to New York to attend the Mannes International Piano Festival where he played for eminent pianists Jerome Rose and Hyoung Joon Chang.

As of September 2026, Sean is a fourth-year undergraduate at The Royal Northern College of Music under Graham Scott, whilst studying privately under Leslie Howard in the wake of his performance of the Brahms Concerto.