B i o g r a p h y

Lumas Winds are committed ambassadors for wind chamber music and the rich variety of repertoire it offers. As winners of the 71st Royal Over-Seas League Mixed Ensemble Prize, and regularly featuring at festivals and music clubs up and down the UK, they have firmly established themselves as a group to watch and have been described as an ‘effervescent wind quintet, lively in their performance style and enterprising in their choice of repertoire’ (Seen and Heard International).

The ensemble released their debut album, The Naming of Birds, in May 2024 for Champs Hill records. The disc highlights their passion as advocates for works that deserve recognition and was described by Andrew McGregor as ‘an excellent and highly enjoyable survey of the British wind quintet from the early 1960s into this century’ (BBC Radio 3, Record Review). Six hidden gems feature from each decade from 1960 to 2010 including three world premiere recordings by Beamish, Higgins, and Maconchy. Prior to recording, the group won the Royal Academy of Music’s Historical Women Composers Prize for their performance of the Elizabeth Maconchy Wind Quintet (1980) after a worthwhile visit to the Maconchy archive based within St Hilda’s, Oxford. The recording received five star reviews from both BBC Music Magazine and the online journal Pizzicato.

They are currently featured young artists with the Countess of Munster Recital Scheme as well as the Kirckman Concerts Society, the latter of which saw them make their King’s Place debut in May 2025 - here they performed the semi-theatrical Opus Number Zoo by Luciano Berio from memory. Prior to this, the group were Tunnell Trust Young Artists, taking them on a tour of Scottish music clubs in February 2024; Britten Pears Young Artists, which provided them with a week long residency in Snape Maltings, exploring various contemporary works with the Montreal-based Qautuor Bozzini, as well as the performance of a newly commissioned work by composer Marcello Palazzo; and Philip and Dorothy Green Young Artists through Making Music.

Most recently they have been made ‘Ensemble in Association’ at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama where they give concerts, coaching sessions, and side-by-side performing experiences.

The group has featured at the Budleigh, Buxton, Corbridge, Gower, Ironstone, Lake District, North Norfolk Peasmarsh, and Winchester chamber music festivals. This has included several performances of Poulenc’s Sextet alongside the likes of pianists Benjamin Frith, Huw Watkins, and Shai Wosner. As well as collaborations with other esteemed musicians including Anthony Marwood, Lucy Gould, Ralph de Souza, Grace Park, Hélène Clement, Rosalind Ventris, Richard Lester, John Myerscough, Kate Gould, and Philip Nelson. They made their Wigmore Hall debut in June 2023 with an energised performance of Lalo Schifrin’s La Nouvelle Orleans, a piece they continue to champion.

Lumas evolved through friendships formed at the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, with the ensemble being established in 2018. This has resulted in a strong bond between its members, carrying the group forward with confidence in its shared vision. The group presents diverse and varied programmes, framing lesser known works alongside classics of the canon, and their concerts embrace verbal introductions which illuminate the thinking behind their fresh and eclectic approach.

Beth Stone (Flute):

As an avid player of all flutes from renaissance all the way through to modern flute, London-based 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; Irish Baroque Orchestra; Ex-Cathedra; The Sixteen; Armonico Consort; London Handel Players; Cambridge Handel Opera Company; 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 recorded albums with Lumas Winds for Champs Hill and Flutes & Frets Duo for EM Records. She has won several prizes in competitions including the 2023 International H.I.F. Biber Competition; 2022 Royal Overseas League Competition; and the Telemann Fantasia Recording Competition 2021.

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 schemes and trusts including The Munster Trust; Kirckman Concerts; Making Music, Tunnell Trust and the European Festivals Association she has had the opportunity to tour all over the UK and Europe.

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 McKenna Prize for the highest end-of-year recital mark in a baroque instrument.

Chris Vettraino (Oboe):

Grand Finalist of the 2024 BBC Radio Scotland Young Classical Musician Competition, where he performed Martinu Oboe Concerto with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Chris Vettraino is an award-winning soloist and chamber musician, as well as an accomplished orchestral musician. ((As a chamber musician Chris is a founding member of Lumas Winds, 1st Prize winners at the Lyon International Chamber Music Competition, where they also were awarded 4 of 5 available Special Prizes. They previously won the Mixed Ensembles Prize at the 71st Royal Over-Seas League Annual Music Competition, and following this success spent time as Phillip and Dorothy Green Young Artists with Making Music. Having released their debut album with Champs Hill Records, they are award winners of the Tunnell trust, Kirkman Concert Society, Countess of Munster Trust, and have been Young Artists in Residence at the Corbridge Chamber Festival, as well as 2024 Britten Pears Young Artists.))

Chris has appeared as Principal Oboe with the Royal Northern Sinfonia, the Ulster Orchestra, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, and the BBC SSO, and has played with other major orchestras such as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, The Philharmonia, London Sinfonietta, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Whilst studying for a Masters at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Cologne, he won a contract with the Gürzenich-Orchester Köln for their 2024/25 season, and worked with them full-time until he returned to the UK. He was also a member of the LPO’s Foyle Future Firsts programme for the 2022/23 season. He has appeared as a Concerto soloist across the UK, including performing the Mozart Oboe Concerto with the London Mozart Players. Chris began learning the oboe in Glasgow with Stephen West, having lessons at school before studying at the Junior Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. As a teenager, he played with the National Youth Orchestras of Scotland and of Great Britain, and won prizes at both the JRCS and the Glasgow Music Festival. He did his undergraduate studies with Chris Cowie and Sue Bohling at the Royal Academy of Music, graduating with first class honours in 2022. He also did his postgraduate at RAM, with Tom Blomfield, Ian Hardwick, and Sue Bohling, graduating with distinction in 2023. He then went on to study in Cologne with Christian Wetzel, concluding his studies in 2025.

Benjamin Hartnell-Booth (French Horn):

After beginning his musical journey as a cornet player in Greater Manchester, Benjamin Hartnell-Booth is currently a freelance horn player based in London. Benjamin studied 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, performing as Guest Principal with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia, the BBC Philharmonic, Opera North, Scottish Opera, the Royal National Scottish Orchestra and National Symphony Orchestra Ireland among others. He has in particular enjoyed 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 performed a great deal of chamber music over the years; he recently performed Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings in London with Westminster Opera Company, performed pieces such as Beethoven's Septet and Strauss' Till Eulenspiegel - Einmal Anders at the Peasmarsh Festival 2025, and was a featured artist at the Corbridge Music Festival 2025 in which he performed the Brahms Horn Trio, Strauss’ Andante for Horn and Piano, Gavin Higgins' Fanfare, Air and Flourishes, and Jorg Widmann's Air for Solo Horn.

Florence Plane (Bassoon):

Florence Plane is a Welsh freelance bassoonist based in London. She enjoys a varied career of chamber and orchestral playing, and is a founder member of Lumas Winds.

A passionate chamber musician, Flo has performed at a variety of chamber music festivals across the UK, including Schubert Octet with the Brodsky Quartet at the Dante Festival in Cornwall, Beethoven’s Septet at the Wye Valley Chamber Music Festival, Brahms’s Serenade for Nonet at the Penarth Chamber Music Festival and Huw Watkins’s ‘Broken Consort’ at the Sheffield Chamber Music Festival. She featured at the Oxford Lieder Festival 2021 with acclaimed soprano Sophie Bevan and appears regularly with Sheffield-based Ensemble360, presenting Strauss’ Til Eulenspiegel for quintet, Ligeti’s Ten Pieces, and Mozart’s Gran Partita.

Flo has performed with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Welsh National Opera, the Gävle Symfoniorkester on their tour of the UK, and NSO Dublin and BBC National Orchestra of Wales, where she held trial positions. She was a member of the Chipping Campden Festival Academy Orchestra, performing in their May festival in 2024, and recently joined the LPO Foyle Future Firsts scheme for 2025/26.

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, with which she made her German radio debut for WDR3. She also features on a disc exploring Stravinsky’s chamber works under Linn Records with the Royal Academy Soloists Ensemble.

At age 16 she took up a place at Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester and was awarded a full scholarship to support her studies at the Royal Academy of Music, with her further studies supported by the Countess of Munster Trust. She continued her studies at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin with Volker Tessmann, supported by the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD).

Rennie Sutherland (Clarinet):

Rennie Sutherland studied clarinet 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 went on to study at the Royal College of Music in London where he gained both a Bachelors in Music and Masters in Performance under the tutelage of Tim Lines and Richard Hosford. During his time at RCM he played in all their primary orchestras and ensembles working with conductors such as Rafael Payare, Vasily Petrenko, and Andrew Davies as well as recording in Abbey Road Studios. Following his studies he was a member of the Chipping Campden Festival Academy Orchestra for 2025.

Rennie now regularly freelances in the UK and has performed with Chromatica (formerly Bath Festival) Orchestra, London Mozart Players, Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House.

As a passionate chamber musician Rennie is a founding and current member of Lumas Winds; 1st Place winners of the Lyon International Chamber Music Compeitition and of the 71st Royal Over-Seas League Ensemble Prize, they have featured as ‘young artists’ for Britten-Pears, Countess of Munster Trust, Kirckman Concerts Society, Making Music, and Tunnell Trust. 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 (Frankfurt, Germany) ‘International Academist’ in 2024.

All images: Inis Oirr Asano photography