Northern Reeds was founded in 2019 by five graduates of the Royal Northern College of Music, and is the UK’s first established reed quintet. This new and exciting chamber music format comprises five reeded instruments of the woodwind family: the oboe (Hannah Seymour) , saxophone (Nathan Holroyd), clarinet (Chris Hardy), bass clarinet (Beth Machell) and bassoon (Alice Keegan).

Northern Reeds are the winners of the Royal Philharmonic Society Henderson Chamber Ensemble Award 2022, RNCM Fewkes Prize 2022, the June Emerson Wind Music Launchpad Prize 2022, and the RNCM Christopher Rowland Prize Audience Vote 2022. The group has performed in venues across the country including the Bridgewater Hall, the Stoller Hall and Manchester Central Library. They are the first UK group to be admitted into Calefax’s International Reed Quintet Network and recently had the pleasure of working alongside the group in judging their annual Calefax Composers Competition.

Alongside this, Northern Reeds has commissioned new works for reed quintet by composers such as Tak-Kei Wong and Eden Longson. The quintet was recently the subject of articles in magazines by CASSGB and the British Double Reed Society.