As an avid player of all flutes from renaissance all the way through to modern flute, Beth Stone enjoys a colourful career performing in many different settings in the UK and Europe. She has had the pleasure of working with a variety of orchestras including the Academy of Ancient Music; Ex-Cathedra; Cambridge Handel Opera Company; Britten-Shostakovich Festival Orchestra; The Sixteen; National Youth Jazz Orchestra among many others. Her playing can also be heard on recordings with the Taverner Consort and the Academy of Ancient Music. Beth’s radio debut took place in Germany for WDR3 and she has won several prizes in competitions including the 2023 International H.I.F. Biber Competition; the Telemann Fantasia Recording Competition 2021 and the 2020 Samnium University’s International Orchestra Auditions Awards.
Chamber music has always been a central part of Beth’s music making. She has performed with several chamber groups, and now primarily, the award-winning Flutes & Frets Duo and Lumas Winds which have enabled her to perform in many festivals, concerts, competitions and events. Supported by several schemes and trusts, she has had the opportunity to tour Scotland, perform in festivals in Krakow, York, Spain, Italy, Antwerp and many other exciting recitals as a chamber musician.
Beth spent seven years studying at Chetham’s School of Music from age eleven, taking an interest in historical flutes in her final two years there. As an Ian Evans Lombe Scholar, she graduated from the Royal College of Music with a first class honours in 2022, where she studied modern flute with Gitte Marcusson and historical flutes with Rachel Brown as part of the joint principal course, winning the RCM RCM McKenna Prize for the highest end-of-year recital mark in a baroque instrument.
Q&A
Chris Vettraino has appeared as Guest Principal Oboe with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Royal Northern Sinfonia. He has played with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, The Philharmonia, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and was a member of the LPO’s Foyle Future Firsts programme for the 2022/23 season. He has won awards at the Croydon Performing Arts Festival, Royal Academy of Music, and the Glasgow Music Festival, and has appeared as a Concerto soloist across the UK, including performing the Mozart Oboe Concerto with the London Mozart Players. In June 2024, he will compete in the Grand Final of the inaugural BBC Radio Scotland Young Classical Musician of the Year competition.
In addition to his work with Lumas, Chris keeps himself busy with chamber music. He appeared at the Ironstone Chamber Festival in 2022 performing the Villa-Lobos Trio for Oboe, Bassoon, and Clarinet; and Mozart’s Oboe Quartet with members of the Gould Piano Trio. He then went on to perform the Mozart again at the 2023 Corbridge Chamber Festival, where he also played in the Nonets by Louise Farrenc and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, alongside distinguished woodwind chamber musicians Rob Plane and Adam Walker. He has also appeared at the Clapham Chamber Concerts series in London, playing 1st oboe in a concert of Dvorak’s Wind Serenade and Beethoven’s Octet in Eb.
After learning in Glasgow with Stephen West at the Junior Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Chris won an entrance scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Music with Chris Cowie, and Sue Bohling. After twice winning the Leila Bull Oboe Prize and Barry Grimaldi Cor Anglais Prize, he graduated in 2023. Chris is now studying in Cologne with Christian Wetzel.
Q&A
What’s your favourite piece to play with Lumas and why?
I’m extremely fond of the Mozart Divertimento no.8 that has been in our repertoire for a long time. It doesn’t have any complex counting or rhythmic chaos or crunchy chords that never sound in tune. It’s simple, melodic music, and I feel really bonded as a group when we play it.
Who brings the humour to Lumas rehearsals?
Flo and Rennie tend to be constantly laughing at in-jokes, and Rennie and I spend a lot of time quoting Aunty Donna. Benji tends to cycle through lots of different voices and accents – which goes down differently depending on how we’re feeling!
What’s on repeat in your Spotify?
Listening to a lot of podcasts at the moment, namely Off Menu, The Rest is Football, and the Aunty Donna Podcast.
Biggest bucket list item?
Call me a dreamer but I’d love to play a concerto at the BBC Proms.
Favourite book?
‘Everyone you hate is going to die’ – by Daniel Sloss
Despite beginning his musical journey as a cornet player in Greater Manchester, Benjamin is currently a freelance horn player based in London. Having originally read history at Merton College, Oxford, Benjamin went on to study horn playing at the Royal Academy of Music with the generous support of the Countess of Munster Trust and Pendle Young Musician and graduated in 2022. As well as graduating with distinction, Benjamin was awarded an additional diploma for an ‘Outstanding Final Recital’ in which he performed works by Poulenc, Messiaen and Britten.
Since then, Benjamin has focused primarily on orchestral playing, achieving trial positions with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on 3rd and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Opera North and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra as principal. He has in particular developed his operatic work, performing Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman and Tristan und Isolde at Grange Park Opera, Puccini’s La Boheme with the Glyndebourne Touring Orchestra and Janacek’s Cunning Little Vixen with Opera North. He is currently the Westminster Opera Company’s featured horn player for their 2021-3 seasons, performing arrangements of Humperdinck’s Hansel und Gretal and Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro at the Chateau de Panloy.
Benjamin has also enjoyed performing a great deal of chamber music over the years; a regular member of the Vacation Chamber Orchestra, he was recently invited to perform Mozart’s Horn Quintet, the Schubert Octet and Dukas’ La Villanelle in several concerts across Yorkshire. During his time at Oxford, Benjamin was principal horn and co-manager of Phoenix Winds and was fortunate enough to perform Mozart’s Gran Partita, the Dvorak Serenade and Strauss’ Sonatine No.1 “From the Invalid’s Workshop” with Hilary Davan-Wetton at the helm.
Q&A
Favourite piece to play with Lumas & why?
I think it has to be Lalo Schifrin’s Nouvelle Orleans, aside from the fact that every time we play it from now on it will remind me of the first time I ever played at the Wigmore, it is also just a really fun piece of music which we can have a lot of fun with. It’s great to really ham up the jazz and see just how many note bends, glisses and funky rhythms I can make before anyone notices!
If you could learn another instrument?
For me it’s always going to be piano – I love the horn but it can be quite frustrating practising a part and only hearing a single line from what should be a really rich soundscape. With the piano, I could sit down and play a complete piece of music just for myself without having to imagine all the other sounds I should be hearing.
What made you want to pursue music?
I originally studied history, but about half way through my course I realised that I was spending as much time practising, rehearsing and performing as I was studying for my degree. So I asked myself if there was any real reason why I shouldn’t see if I could make a go of it and came up short. In any case, I was hardly going to do history for the rest of my life, there’s no future in it…
What’s your dream 3 course meal?
Now, this a tough question. I think I would have to go with a French meal, perhaps a light starter of some paté with a nice bread and some Languedoc red wine, followed by moules mariniéres et frite paired with a light white burgundy. To finish, I think a fairly tart fruit sorbet and a glass of dessert wine would probably round the meal off nicely.
Any hidden talents?
I am surprisingly flexible and am currently undefeated in the limbo arena.
Favourite Book?
I don’t think I have a single favourite book, I tend to enjoy the bizarre and slightly satirical, so things like Joseph Heller’s Catch 22 and Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series definitely make the list. I have also read some really fascinating history books recently and would highly recommend Peter Frankopan’s The Silk Roads for an epic history or MIchael Pye’s The Edge of the World for a more revisionist approach to progress in Europe in the pre-modern era.
Florence Plane is a postgraduate bassoonist at the Royal Academy of Music, where she currently studies with Jonathan Davies. Born and raised in Cardiff, aged 16 she took up a place at Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester.
Flo is the former principal bassoon of the National Youth Orchestra of Wales and was a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. Lumas Winds was formed from friendships forged in NYOGB, and is a dynamic young ensemble, dedicated to the promotion of the wind quintet genre. They were finalists at the 2022 Royal Overseas League Competition and recently recorded their debut album for Champs Hill Records.
A passionate chamber musician, Flo has performed alongside musicians such as Benjamin Frith, Malin Broman, Robert Plane and Alice Neary at a variety of chamber music festivals across the UK. These include Schubert Octet with the Brodsky Quartet and Friends at the Dante Festival in Cornwall, and Beethoven Septet at the Penarth Chamber Music Festival and Wye Valley Chamber Music Festival. She has performed at the Oxford Lieder Festival with acclaimed soprano Sophie Bevan.
She has made the world premiere recording of Pamela Harrison’s ‘Faggot Dance’, which will be released as part of a survey of this neglected composer’s chamber music by Resonus Classics on International Women’s Day in 2023
Flo was awarded a full scholarship by the Royal Academy of Music to support her undergraduate studies She has given numerous performances with the Academy Symphony, Opera and Chamber Orchestras, and looks forward to working with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales later this year. Her further studies are generously supported by the Countess of Munster Trust.
Q&A
What’s on repeat in your Spotify?
Kendrick Lamar To Pimp a Butterfly, Erykah Badu Mama’s Gun, London Winds Schubert Octet
Supermarket brand of choice?
Morrison’s
Any hidden talents/skills?
Making macrame plant hangers, and hand poked tattoos.
What’s your favourite piece to play with Lumas and why?
Elizabeth Maconchy Wind Quintet – it has lots of beautiful moments with everyone playing together, but it also shows off the instruments individually with cadenzas for each instrument.
Favourite place to perform?The Music Room at Champs Hill
Give us an insight into what it’s like to play with Lumas…
Rehearsals with Lumas are very intense and focused… with the odd interruption filled with laughter, memes and improvising.
Rennie Sutherland studied at the Music School of Douglas Academy in Glasgow from the age of 11, a highlight of his time there was participating in a series of chamber music concerts for Live Music Now. He was a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, as a Wolfson Scholar, for 2018 and a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland for 2019 where he returned in 2020 as Principal Clarinet.
He graduated with a first class honours from the Royal College of Music in 2022 and has stayed to pursue a Masters Degree as a Wilkins-Mackerras Award Holder continuing to study with Tim Lines and Richard Hosford. During his time at RCM he has played in all their primary orchestras and ensembles working with conductors such as Martyn Brabbins and Rafael Payare as well as recording in Abbey Road Studios.
As a passionate chamber musician Rennie is a member of Lumas Winds and contemporary focused Mad Song.
Q&A:
What made you want to pursue music?
Being able to perform is just an absolute joy most of the time. I feel very comfortable on stage (again, most of the time) and there’s something about sharing music for a living that ticks all the boxes.
Any advice that’s always stuck with you?
The harpsichordist Jean Rondeau talked about the timeline of a piece in a masterclass I was lucky enough to watch. Something along the lines of – the music we perform sits upon a timeline, and throughout that timeline we might have a few concerts, an exam, etc. but all the while the music trots along changing and growing, so a performance is simply a sharing of the snippet of the timeline. How lovely is that!
Any pre-concert rituals?
I try to avoid those to be honest! But having said that, I ALWAYS have to brush my teeth…
Favourite Book?
Albert Camus ‘The Outsider’ – pretty intense I know! There’s just so many incredible things packed into it and I consistently find myself pondering about its contents.
If you could learn another instrument, what would it be?
I suppose bagpipes is one that I feel I really should learn… On the classical side however, I’m always jealous of cellists so, I’ll go with cello.
What would you be doing if you weren’t a musician
Buying houses, renovating them, selling them on. I just love the idea – despite having absolutely zero experience whatsoever in any of the relevant trades!