Members

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

What’s your favourite piece to play with Lumas and why?
 
An arrangement of the How To Train Your Dragon soundtrack because it’ll have me humming it for hours every time we play it.
 
What’s your love/hate about the fl./ob./cl./bsn./hrn.?
 
Love = how different each instrument sounds to each other
Hate = how different each instrument sounds to each other
 
If you could learn another instrument, what would it be?
 
Absolutely violin, so much amazing repertoire
 
Biggest bucket list item?
 
I’ve always wanted to hug a kangaroo so visiting a kangaroo sanctuary is high up there.
 

Ewan Millar is a prominent young oboist building a career in the UK. In 2020 Ewan won the woodwind final of BBC Young Musician, advancing to the Grand Final, and giving an “exemplary, richly shaded account” (The Guardian), of Navarro’s “Legacy” concerto with the BBC Philharmonic. Since the competition he has been performing as a soloist in recitals around the UK, including at the Windsor, Cheltenham, and Lake District Summer Music Festivals. He is an artist with both the Tillett Debut Scheme and Countess of Munster Recital Scheme, helping secure further recital opportunities around the UK over the coming years; he is bookable through the new UK Artists Directory. Ewan’s long-time collaborative pianist is the exciting young soloist Tomos Boyles.  

As a freelancer, he has performed as principal oboe with the RPO, Aurora Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, Birmingham Royal Ballet, and London Concertante, and has also performed with the Philharmonia, BBC Phil, RLPO, and Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra. He is thrilled to be performing with the award-winning quintet Lumas Winds throughout 2025.

Ewan did his undergraduate at St. Hilda’s College, Oxford, and his postgraduate at RAM, where he was awarded the Bicentennial Prize and Janet Craxton Memorial Prize, as well as winning the departmental Oboe Prize. He studied primarily with Melanie Ragge, while also receiving lessons from Christopher Cowie, and Patrick Flanaghan for cor anglais.  

Beyond oboe he is also a jazz pianist, gigging regularly in bars and restaurants around Oxford and London. Ewan is a Howarth Artist, and plays on a Howarth XM oboe, which he was kindly aided in buying by the Gerald Finzi Trust. 


Q&A

Any pre-concert rituals?

Bananas and choreographed breathing.

What’s on repeat in your Spotify?

Brahms Piano Trio no.1, Billy Joel, and a lot of podcasts. 

Favourite book?

This answer always has a recency bias for me because my memory is poor! But I love Rachel Cusk and The Bradshaw Variations was my favourite of her books. I was also a big fan of Hemingway’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls”. Non-fiction, I always tell people to read “Debt” by David Graeber.

If you could learn another instrument?

Bassoon – seems like a fun time. Or viola. 

Any hidden talents?

Oboe – I’m hiding it. 

Favourite place to perform?

The 1901 Arts Club in Waterloo is gorgeous, I want to do every recital there.

What’s your love/hate about the fl./ob./cl./bsn./hrn.?

Love has to be the understanding everyone has of incorporating breaths into the music which other instrumentalists have been known to struggle with. 

Hate might be getting shown up by how quietly clarinets and flutes can play! I’m always jealous.

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, Welsh National Opera, Irish National Symphony Orchestra 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, Janacek’s Cunning Little Vixen with Opera North, Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte with Welsh National Opera and 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 and recently performed Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings in London with Westminster Opera Company. 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 Welsh bassoonist currently studying at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler with Volker Tessmann. Born and raised in Cardiff, aged 16 she took up a place at Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester and continued her studies at the Royal Academy of Music where she was awarded a full scholarship, with her further studies supported by the Countess of Munster Trust and the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD).

She is a founding member of Lumas Winds, a dynamic chamber ensemble formed in 2018, based in London and described by BBC Radio 3 Record Review as ‘one to watch’. Winners of the 71st Royal Over-Seas League Mixed Ensemble Prize, Lumas are committed ambassadors for wind chamber music and the rich variety of repertoire that it offers. They were also Tunnell Trust, Britten Pears and Philip and Dorothy Green Young Artists 2023-4. Most recently they became Kirckman Concerts Young Artists, where they will make their Kings Place debut in May 2025, and the group are currently Countess of Munster Recital Scheme Artists. They have appeared at chamber music festivals across the UK including the Corbridge, Ironstone, Winchester and Lake District festivals, collaborating with Huw Watkins and Benjamin Frith for performances of Poulenc’s Sextet. Their debut album Lumas Winds: The Naming of Birds, released in May 2024, described by Andrew McGregor as ‘an excellent and highly enjoyable survey of the British wind quintet from the early 1600s into this century’ (BBC 3 Record Review), illustrates the development of the wind quintet between 1960 and 2010, and includes three world premieres by Higgins, Maconchy, and Beamish. 

A passionate chamber musician, Flo has performed alongside musicians such as Adam Walker, Malin Broman 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, Beethoven’s Septet at the Wye Valley Chamber Music Festival and Brahms’s Serenade for Nonet at the Penarth Chamber Music Festival. She has performed at the Oxford Lieder Festival with acclaimed soprano Sophie Bevan and with Sheffield-based Ensemble360, presenting Strauss’ Til Eulenspiegel for quintet and Ligeti’s Ten Pieces.

She has appeared with the Gävle Symfoniorkester, National Symphony Orchestra Dublin (formerly RTE) and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, where she holds a trial position. She was also a member of the Chipping Campden Festival Academy Orchestra, performing in their May festival in 2024.

She has made the world premiere recording of Pamela Harrison’s ‘Faggot Dance’, which was released as part of a survey of this neglected composer’s chamber music for Resonus Classics on International Women’s Day in 2023, and also features on a disc exploring Stravinsky’s chamber works under Linn Records with the Royal Academy Soloists Ensemble.


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 also a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain.

He graduated with a first class honours from the Royal College of Music in 2022 and stayed to pursue a Masters Degree as a Wilkins-Mackerras Award Holder studying with Tim Lines and Richard Hosford. During his time at RCM he played in all their primary orchestras and ensembles working with conductors such as Martyn Brabbins, Rafael Payare, Vasily Petrenko, and Andrew Davies as well as recording in Abbey Road Studios. Following on from his studies Rennie regularly freelances with the London Mozart Players, Oxford Philharmonic, and Chromatica (formerly Bath Festival) Orchestras. 

As a passionate chamber musician Rennie is a founding and current member of Lumas Winds; winners of the 71st Royal Over-Seas League, they have featured as ‘young artists’ for Britten-Pears, Countess of Munster Trust, Kirckman Concerts Society, Making Music, Tunnell Trust and the Corbridge, Ironstone, and Winchester Chamber Music Festivals. Their debut album for Champs Hill Records released in 2024 to great acclaim. Rennie was also a founding member of the contemporary focused ensemble Mad Song, with whom he was an Ensemble Modern ‘International Academist’ in 2024.


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!