Lumas Winds

Lumas Winds are 1st Place winners of the 2026 Lyon International Chamber Music Competition and winners of the 71st Royal Over-Seas League Ensemble Prize. They are committed ambassadors for wind chamber music and the rich variety of repertoire it offers. Regularly featuring at festivals and music clubs up and down the UK, they have firmly established themselves at the forefront of the new generation of wind ensembles 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).

In April 2026 they achieved international recognition as 1st Place winners of the 2026 Lyon International Chamber Music Competition, while also winning the prizes for best performance of the competition’s commissioned work, Alchimie by Thibault Perrine, and the best performance of a work composed after 1960, with their electrifying, memorised performance of Lalo Schifrin’s La Nouvelle Orleans. Alongside this, they were awarded prizes from the Académie Musicale de Villacroze and La Belle Saison, which will see them take up a residency in the south of France and a concert tour of France.

The ensemble released their debut album, The Naming of Birds, in May 2024 on Champs Hill records. The disc exemplifies their passion as advocates for neglected 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. The recording received five star reviews from both BBC Music Magazine and the online journal Pizzicato.

They are currently featured artists with the Countess of Munster Recital Scheme as well as the Kirckman Concerts Society, with whom they made their King’s Place debut in May 2025. Here they performed their trademark 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 and the performance of a newly commissioned work by Marcello Palazzo; and Philip and Dorothy Green Young Artists through Making Music.

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 pianists Benjamin Frith, Huw Watkins, and Shai Wosner, and performances of Schubert’s Octet and Beethoven’s Septet. They made their Wigmore Hall debut in June 2023.

Lumas Winds are ‘Ensemble in Association’ at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama where they give concerts, coaching sessions, and side-by-side performance experiences.

They also take great pride in undertaking education work in primary and secondary schools and with music services, including at the Peasmarsh and Winchester Chamber Music Festivals.

Lumas evolved through friendships formed at the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. 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.