After starting to play flute at age six, Beth Stone 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.

As an avid player of all flutes from renaissance all the way through to modern flute, Beth has been able to perform in many orchestral settings. She is currently the principal flautist of the Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra and the London Baroque Orchestra. She has had the pleasure of working with the Academy of Ancient Music; Ex-Cathedra; Cambridge Handel Opera Company; Britten-Shostakovich Festival Orchestra; The Sixteen; National Youth Jazz Orchestra among many others. From 2017, she was a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain for two years in which she performed in the BBC Proms, toured the UK & performed in the Berlioz Festival in La Côte-Saint-André, South France. She is also the flautist of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment Experience Ensemble 2022/23 and has performed numerous times at the annual London International Festival of Early Music, Tilford Bach Festival and London Handel Festival both as a soloist and chamber musician. Beth features on several recordings with groups including the Academy of Ancient Music and the Taverner Consort conducted by Andrew Parrott.

Chamber music has always been a central part of Beth’s music making. She performs with many chamber groups including The Flutes & Frets Duo, Lumas Winds, Grand Siècle (on historical flutes) & contemporary group, Ensemble Matters - all of which have enabled her to perform in many festivals, concerts, competitions and events.

Beth was the winner of the RCM 2021 McKenna Prize for the highest end-of-year recital mark in a baroque instrument. She was also the winner of the RCM Flute Prize 2021, the second prize of the RCM Contemporary Competition and the Third Prize Award of Samnium University’s International Orchestra Auditions Awards. Her recording of Telemann’s 9th Fantasia was chosen to be included on an Oboe Classics CD as part of the Telemann Fantasia Recording Competition 2021.

Beth pursues a career in all flute types and is continually focusing on gaining experience, knowledge and understanding of the vast range of music she plays.

Daniel Murphy specialises in performing a variety of plucked-stringed instruments and enjoys a solo career as well as collaborating with many different singers and instrumentalists. Inspired by the great lute players of the past, historical accuracy is at the heart of his music-making.

As a young guitarist, Daniel Murphy studied at the Junior Guildhall Music Department for 4 years with Mark Eden and Matthew Robinson. He then started his Undergraduate studies at the Royal College of Music studying Classical Guitar with Carlos Bonell. During the first two years of his degree, he gradually transitioned to the historical performance department and in his third year, he became RCM’s first ever undergraduate principal-study theorbo player, studying with Jakob Lindberg. In 2023, he graduated from a Masters of Performance Degree with distinction.

Daniel’s freelance work includes collaborating with ensembles such as Ex-Cathedra, Armonico Consort, Fiori Musicali, London Baroque Orchestra and The Bellot Ensemble, with whom he recently performed at the Utrecht Early Music Festival. As a lutenist, he regularly performs lute song with numerous singers including Emma Kirkby, Mary Bevan and Hugh Cutting. Opera forms a large part of his continuo playing, performing works including Handel’s Rodelinda; Purcell’s Fairy Queen, and Monteverdi’s l’Orfeo.

Career highlights include performing with the Taverner Consort, conducted by Andrew Parrott in Frauenchiemsee, Germany and numerous features on Radio 3’s Early Music Show and German Radio, WDR 3 Alte Musik. As a soloist, Daniel was recently the only lute finalist in the New Elizabethan Award 2022.