Lumas Winds are a multi award winning quintet 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). Committed ambassadors for wind chamber music and the rich variety of repertoire it offers, they regularly feature at festivals and music clubs up and down the UK.
Winners at the 71st Royal Overseas League Annual Music Competition, in April 2026 they achieved international recognition as 1st Prizewinners of the 2026 Lyon International Chamber Music Competition. True to their passion for contemporary music, they also won the prizes for best interpretation of the competition’s commissioned work, Alchimie by Thibault Perrine, and the best interpretation of a work composed after 1960, with 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, including a performance at the renowned Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord in Paris.
The ensemble released their debut album, The Naming of Birds, in May 2024 on Champs Hill records, featuring three world premiere recordings. The disc received five star reviews from both BBC Music Magazine and the online journal Pizzicato, 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).
They are currently featured artists with the Countess of Munster Recital Scheme as well as the Kirckman Concerts Society, and in the past have been Tunnell Trust Young Artists, Britten Pears Young Artists, 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, and Kings Place debut in 2025.
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 performing 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, which has resulted in a strong bond between its members, carrying the group forward with confidence in its shared vision.