Press
Maxim to join violinist Nicola Benedetti for 14 concert UK Tour
10/10/2025
Maxim joins violinist Nicola Benedetti, guitarist Plinio Fernandes and accordionist Samuele Telari on a special 14 concert UK tour combining intimate performances with storytelling and dazzling shorter works.
Venues are to include Usher Hall, Edinburgh, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester and the Royal Albert Hall, London.
The tour is presented by Askonas Holt.
Verbier Festival Academy - ‘Goldman Sachs Gives Award’ winner
Verbier Festival, 3/8/2025
Maxim is the proud recipient of the inaugural “Goldman Sachs Gives Award’, awarded at the 2025 Verbier Festival Academy to a ‘musician of exceptional merit’.
Review: Elgar Cello Concerto, Maidstone Symphony Orchestra
Mote Hall, Maidstone, 17/5/2025
“Maxim Calver, in his fourth appearance with MSO, dug out plenty of the soulful anguish and autumnal sadness which the piece demands while also infusing it with rich tonal warmth. There was a spirited account of the scherzo marked by scrupulous, visible co-ordination between Calver and Wright, and an adagio so sumptuously expressive that it almost hurt. Yes, I’m not surprised to be informed, by Wright in his introduction that Calver is going places fast.”
Reviewed by Susan Elkin (Susan Elkin reviews)
Review: Dvorak Cello Concerto, Plymouth Symphony Orchestra
St. Andrews Minster, Plymouth, 19/3/2025
“What really distinguished this superb performance was the gloriously rich tone Maxim had in abundance when called for by the composer … Calver’s tone-production literally took this vital facet of cello-playing to an altogether higher level, and well-deserving of the tremendous ovation he received at the close.”
Reviewed by Philip Buttall (artsculture)
Review: Solo recital, Cambridge Summer Music Festival
Selwyn College Chapel, Cambridge, 19/6/2024
“Maxim, a charming almost seraphic stage presence took it all on with unhurried skill … a player as brilliant as this can travel those centuries and with his one solo instrument take us with him right to the turbulent shores of modernism.. Wonderful.”
Reviewed by Anne Garvey (Cambridge Critique)
Schiermonnikoog Festival 2024 - ‘Oranjewoud Award’ winner
Schiermonnikoog Festival, 16/3/2024
Maxim wins the ‘Oranjewoud Award’ at the 2024 Schiermonnikoog Festival. As the winner of the award, he will perform a recital at the 2024 Oranjewoud Festival on the 1st June 2024.
Review: Shostakovich Cello Concerto, Maidstone Symphony Orchestra
Mote Hall, Maidstone, 14/10/2023
“Calver’s playing was both intense and insouciant as he hammered out those relentless, menacing rhythms in the first movement. I loved the brooding, legato lament he dug out of the slow movement and his mellow mournfulness of tone in the cadenza.”
Reviewed by Susan Elkin (Susan Elkin reviews)
Review: Royal Overseas League Annual Music Competition, Strings Section Final
Royal Overseas League, London, 25/2/2020
“My own special mention goes to Calver … holding the room with the elegance of his technique and overall sound, and his natural poeticism across Lutosławski’s Grave, Dvořák’s Silent Woods and Paganini’s Mosè in Egitto Introduction and Variations. I have no doubt we’ll be hearing more from him in the coming years.”
Reviewed by Charlotte Gardner (Strad Magazine)