Assembly House Classical presents

Maxim Calver, cello
Kumi Matsuo, piano

Programme
Claude Debussy — Cello Sonata
Robert Schumann — Adagio and Allegro, Op. 70
Dmitri Shostakovich — Cello Sonata in D minor, Op. 40

Thursday 29 January 2026
1.00pm (doors open 12.30pm)
The Assembly House, Norwich

Maxim Calver first gained public recognition as a Grand Finalist and Strings Category winner of BBC Young Musician 2018. Since then, he has been in high demand across the UK and Europe, appearing in many of Europe’s leading venues including Wigmore Hall, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Tonhalle Zürich, and Symphony Hall, Birmingham, amongst others.

In recent seasons, he has appeared as a concerto soloist with the Bath, Plymouth, Stockport, Ipswich, Maidstone, and Young Musician Symphony Orchestras, and performed debut recitals at the King’s Lynn Festival, Hay Festival, Oranjewoud Festival, Cambridge Summer Music Festival, and Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, amongst others.

A passionate chamber musician, Maxim has recently appeared at the Verbier Festival, Pau Casals International Music Festival, Edinburgh International Festival, and IMS Prussia Cove Open Chamber Music Seminar, as well as in live radio broadcasts from the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Berlin Konzerthaus, and Royal Holloway Chapel. In May 2024, he was invited to the prestigious Kronberg Academy for their Chamber Music Connects the World Festival, performing alongside Lawrence Power, Gidon Kremer, and Antje Weithaas.

Originally from Gorleston-on-Sea in Norfolk, Maxim began learning the cello at the age of four before moving to the Yehudi Menuhin School aged eight. He is currently an Artist in Residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, studying with Gary Hoffman and Jeroen Reuling. He has also received guidance from many of the world’s leading musicians, including Steven Isserlis, Gábor Takács-Nagy, Nicolas Altstaedt, Frans Helmerson, and Ilya Gringolts.

Maxim is very grateful for the support of the Amaryllis Fleming Foundation, Geoff and Val Richards, the Countess of Munster Musical Trust, the Drake Calleja Trust, and the Hattori Foundation.

Kumi Matsuo is a versatile solo pianist, chamber musician, and accompanist. She has won numerous competitions, including First Prize in the 6th Isidor Bajić Memorial Piano Competition in Serbia and First Prize in the 5th Louisiana International Piano Competition, USA. She is now on the staff at the Royal College of Music (RCM), working as Duo Coach to the String Faculty and accompanying across other departments.

Kumi studied at the Toho Gakuen College of Music in Tokyo, and later at the Royal College of Music in London with John Blakely and Ashley Wass, completing both an Artist Diploma and a Master of Music in Performance with Distinction. She also held the Anthony Saltmarsh Junior Fellowship in Accompaniment. Her studies were generously supported by the Charles Napper Award, the Russell Gander Award, and the Rohm Music Foundation.

During her time at the RCM, Kumi twice won the RCM Concerto Competition, performing Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand at Cadogan Hall with the RCM Sinfonietta conducted by Peter Stark, and Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3with the RCM Symphony Orchestra under Martin André in the Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall. She also performed Schnittke’s Concerto Grosso No. 1 with the RCM Chamber Orchestra under Vladimir Jurowski at the Queen Elizabeth Hall.

As a soloist and chamber musician, Kumi has performed extensively throughout the UK, as well as in the USA, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, the UAE, India, Korea, and Japan. She made her New York debut at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall and undertook an extended concerto and recital tour across Louisiana.

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