Cellist Meera Priyanka Raja is studying at the Royal College Music with Professor Alexander Chaushian. She studied at Bancroft’s School where she held a Music Scholarship and was further awarded an ‘Excelling in Arts Award’ for talented musicians.
At the age of 13, Meera was selected to perform solo at the Royal Festival Hall as part of the Rotary Club’s ‘Youth makes Music’ event and has since performed at venues across the country and Europe. She was awarded a place with the National Youth Orchestra of GB where she performed at all major venues across the UK including the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall.
As an experienced chamber musician, Meera regularly performs with her piano trio, Trio Rouge. They have performed at venues across London and reached the semi-finals of the Royal Overseas League Chamber Music Competition in 2017. Chamber Music Festivals performed at include the British Isles Music Festival, Sacconi Festival and the Queen’s Coronation Festival at Buckingham Palace.
Meera played in the award-winning West End Musical ‘Bend it like Beckham’ and New Musical, ‘Beyond the Fence.’ She subsequently performed as a solo cellist in a touring theatre production of EM Forster’s novel ‘A Passage to India.’
Meera is a member of the Symphony Orchestra of India; 2019 engagements include concerts in Mumbai and a UK tour.
She is supported by a Musicians' Company Lambert Mentorship Scholarship and the Henry Wood Accommodation Trust. Meera is also a Help Musicians UK Postgraduate Award holder.
Kumi Matsuo was born in Tokyo, Japan. Winner of the 5th Louisiana International Piano Competition in 2013, she has also won Second Prize at the 75th Music Competition of Japan in 2006, Third Prize at the 22nd Ferrol International Piano Competition in 2008 and First Prize at the 6th Isidor Bajic International Piano Competition in 2012.
Kumi graduated from the Toho Gakuen High School of Music and the Toho Gakuen University of Music in Tokyo. In 2007 she moved to London for her further study at the Royal College of Music where she gained an Artist Diploma and a Master of Music in Performance. Her study was supported by the Charles Napper Award, the Russell Gander Award and the Rohm Music Foundation.
In 2008 Kumi won RCM concerto competition and gave her London debut playing Ravel’s Piano Concerto for Left Hand in Cadogan Hall with RCM Sinfonietta conducted by Peter Stark. In 2009 she performed Schnittke’s Concerto Grosso No.1 with RCM Chamber Orchestra under Vladimir Jurowski at the Queen Elisabeth Hall. She also performed Prokofiev’s 3rd Piano Concerto with RCM Symphony Orchestra under Martin André at the Royal College of Music. In 2014 she gave her New York debut at Carnegie Hall Weill Recital Hall.
Kumi has played solo and chamber music in UK, USA, France, Holland, Poland, Romania, India and Japan and performed as a soloist with orchestras such as Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Galicia Symphony Orchestra, Banatul Symphony Orchestra, Rapides Symphony Orchestra, Constanza Symphony Orchestra and Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra. She has recently finished the Anthony Saltmarsh Junior Fellow in Accompaniment at the Royal College of Music.
Free recital (retiring collection)