Programme for Season 2025
Maharaj/Degavino Duo
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Maxim Calver
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Kyle Hutchings
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Sunday 13 April 2025 at 4pm
Meera MaharajFlute
Dominic Degavino Piano
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Artist BiographyFormed in 2017, the Maharaj/Degavino duo takes great pleasure in sharing flute and piano programmes across the UK. Some particular highlights have been performances at St Martin in the Fields, St James' Church, Piccadilly and Petworth Festival. They have enjoyed performing extensively for music societies and festivals, including as former Countess of Munster Recital Scheme artists, Tunnell Trust award winners and Park Lane Group artists. Meera Maharaj and Dominic Degavino both undertook postgraduate studies in London, at the Royal Academy of Music and Guildhall School of Music and Drama, respectively. Initially meeting during their undergraduate years at the Royal Northern College of Music, specifically during a big band project, they realised that they both share a love of jazz. In addition to that passion, they also enjoy contemporary classical repertoire and endeavour to incorporate these interests into their recitals. They are artists on the Live Music Now Scheme, and they were 2018/19 artists on the Wigmore Hall Chamber Tots scheme. Meera Maharaj enjoys a diverse performing career. Her duo with pianist Dominic Degavino has enjoyed much success, featuring as Countess of Munster Recital Scheme, Tunnell Trust and Park Lane Group artists. Since 2013, she has frequently performed with guitarist James Girling, as the Meraki Duo. They recently won the II Concurs Internacional de Música Cambra Flauta & Guitarra and they were finalists in the 2019 Royal Overseas League competition, as well as International Guitar Foundation Young Artists. She also plays with harpist, Lucy Nolan as Hathor Duo and formed her own flexi-ensemble – Meliora Collective. With a strong interest in outreach work, she’s a Live Music Now artist. Competition successes include first prize in the Royal Academy of Music Flute Competition and Dutch International Flute Competition, plus the Sussex Prize in the 2023 Royal Overseas League competition. She graduated with Distinction in her Masters, studying with Michael Cox at the Royal Academy of Music. In 2017, she graduated from the Royal Northern College of Music, studying with Wissam Boustany and Laura Jellicoe. Meera has played at the Wigmore Hall, Kings Place and Royal Albert Hall at the BBC Proms. She is Co-principal flute of Chineke! Orchestra and recently appeared as a concerto soloist at Queen Elizabeth Hall.
Pianist Dominic Degavino studied at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester and at the Guildhall School, London with Helen Krizos, Charles Owen and Noriko Ogawa. He has performed at venues such as the Wigmore Hall and Southbank Centre, London as a Park Lane Group artist, and at the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester. Concerto appearances include performances with the Manchester Camerata and RNCM Symphony Orchestra. Dominic has achieved considerable competition success, including winning the RNCM Gold Medal Competition, and prizes at the Concours International de Piano d'Epinal, J.N. Hummel International Piano Competition, and the Royal Over-Seas League Competition. He also performed across the UK as a member of the Tillett Trust DEBUT and Countess of Munster Musical Trust recital schemes. Alongside work as a soloist, he is a passionate chamber musician, accompanist, and jazz player, with ensembles including the Mithras Trio (former BBC New Generation Artists) and with flautist Meera Maharaj.
Programme Notesare available here.
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Sunday 27 April 2025 at 4pm
Maxim CalverCello
Angus Webster Piano
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Artist BiographyPraised for the “elegance of his technique, overall sound and natural poeticism” (Charlotte Gardner, Strad Magazine), Maxim Calver first gained public recognition as a Grand Finalist and Strings Category winner of BBC Young Musician 2018, where he made his concerto debut with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in Symphony Hall, Birmingham. Since then he has been in high demand across the UK and Europe and in October 2021, he made his European Concerto debut at the Grosse Saal of the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie. Establishing himself as a young artist known for his passion for performance, Maxim has appeared in many of Europe’s other leading venues including the Wigmore Hall, Tonhalle Zurich and Cadogan Hall amongst others. He has appeared as a concerto soloist with various orchestras including the Bath, Stockport, Ipswich, Maidstone and Young Musician Symphony Orchestras, the Orpheus Sinfonia and the Suffolk Philharmonic Orchestra. He also made debut recital appearances at Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall, Cambridge Summer Music Festival and at the Oranjewoud Festival in the Netherlands as the winner of the ‘Oranjewoud Award’ at the 2024 Schiermonnikoog Festival. In the 24/25 season, Maxim’s highlights include performances of Elgar, Shostakovich and Dvorak’s cello concertos, recitals alongside pianist Kumi Matsuo and a variety of exciting chamber music collaborations. Furthermore, from the start of the 24/25 season Maxim has been invited to be an ‘Associated Artist’ on the UK Artists Directory after his successful tenure on the Countess of Munster Trust’s Recital Scheme. A passionate chamber musician, Maxim has appeared at the Gstaad-Menuhin, Lewes, Stamford and International Pau Casals Chamber Music Festivals and performed live radio broadcasts from the Konzerthaus Berlin and Amsterdam Concertgebouw. In May 2024, he was invited to the Kronberg Academy’s ‘Chamber Music Connects the World’ Festival where he worked and performed alongside Gidon Kremer, Antje Weithaas and Lawrence Power. Maxim has also appeared at the Edinburgh International Festival for the past two years as a part of their ‘rising stars’ series at the invitation of current artistic director Nicola Benedetti. In 2023, Maxim was invited by composer Matthew Coleridge to appear on his new album ‘Requiem’ alongside the Southern Sinfonia and Choir of Royal Holloway directed by Rupert Gough. The album was recently released on Convivium Records to widespread critical acclaim. Originally from Gorleston-on-Sea in Norfolk, Maxim started the cello at the age of 4 with Maja Passchier before moving to the Yehudi Menuhin School to study with Thomas Carroll aged just 8 years old. He currently studies at the Royal College of Music with Professor Melissa Phelps, where he is proud to be an ABRSM Scholar for his postgraduate studies. He has received guidance and inspiration from many leading cellists including Gary Hoffman, Frans Helmerson, Steven Doane, Colin Carr and the late Heinrich Schiff. Maxim has also partaken in master-classes at the Kronberg Academy, Tibor Varga Academy and IMS Prussia Cove amongst others. Maxim is very grateful to have received support from the Amaryllis Fleming Foundation, Geoff and Val Richards, Countess of Munster Musical Trust, Drake Calleja Trust and the Hattori Foundation. He is also very grateful to the Young Classical Artists Trust and the Countess of Munster Trust for their invitation. Maxim plays an Alberto Aloysius Blanchi cello, dated 1906.
Angus Webster enjoys a growing career as a conductor and pianist. In recent seasons, he has conducted the Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Ulster Orchestra, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Bruckner Orchestra Linz, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, and Osaka Philharmonic. Raised in Cornwall, Angus studied conducting with Esa-Pekka Salonen and won top prizes at the Panula International Conducting Competition in 2018. He studied piano with Alasdair Beatson and Claudio Martínez Mehner and has played in masterclasses with Ferenc Rados, Rita Wagner, Dénes Várjon, and Kirill Gerstein at IMS Prussia Cove.
Programme Noteswill be available at the concert.
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Sunday 11 May 2025 at 4pm
Kyle HutchingsPiano
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Artist BiographyKyle Hutchings is a British pianist who, after just twelve months of self-taught playing, won a scholarship to study in London with internationally acclaimed pianist Richard Meyrick on the Pianoman Scholarships Scheme, supported by Sir and Lady Harvey McGrath. Subsequently, he made his London debut with the Arch Sinfonia, playing Beethoven’s Second Piano Concerto. Critically acclaimed by International Piano Magazine as “a poet of the piano”, he has performed in venues such as London’s prestigious St. John’s Smith Square, Kings Place, St. James’s Piccadilly, St. Mary’s Perivale, London’s BT Tower, The Lansdowne Club in Mayfair, as part of the Blüthner Recital Series, and many others up and down the country. In addition to this, he is in high demand internationally, having received accolades throughout Europe. During his studies at Trinity Laban, supported by a scholarship from Trinity College London, he was a recipient of the Conservatoire’s most important prizes, including the Nancy Thomas Prize for Piano as well as the Director’s Prize for Excellence; he was also nominated for the Conservatoire’s coveted Gold Medal. Kyle is supported by The Keyboard Charitable Trust and has received support from the Robert Turnbull Piano Foundation as well as the Zetland Foundation. He looks forward to giving performances throughout Europe and making his American debut in the 2024–2025 season.
Programme Noteswill be available at the concert.
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