New Music Players was founded by composer Ed Hughes in 1990. Early projects included commissions by Michael Finnissy and Howard Skempton, and the first UK performance of John Cage's Europera 5. The ensemble has presented concerts in the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, the Brighton Festival and other prestigious concert series, held residencies at York, Bristol and Nottingham Universities and broadcast regularly on BBC Radio 3. It featured in the Out Hear series at Kings Place in September 2010.
The ensemble features some of the UK’s finest musicians; core members are also members of the BBC Symphony Orchestra; Royal Opera House Orchestra, Covent Garden; Manchester Camerata; the English Chamber Orchestra; Psappha; and a wide variety of early music ensembles and jazz bands.
New Music Players feature on several recordings including a world première recording of five New Music Players commissions on the London Independent Records label, funded by the Foundation for Sport and the Arts and a disc of works by Japanese composer Jo Kondo. NMP features on a new DVD release by the BFI performing Ed Hughes's score to Yasujiro Ozu's 1932 silent film 'I was born but...'