The New Music Players
The New Music Players is one of the UK’s most accomplished new music ensembles, and its musicians are some of the finest working in England today. Founded by composer Edward Dudley 
Hughes as Cambridge New Music Players in 1990, early commissions included works from Michael Finnissy and Howard Skempton which were recorded for broadcast by BBC Radio 3. In 1992 the ensemble mounted the first UK performance of John Cage’s Europera 5. The ensemble has appeared to critical acclaim on many occasions in major London venues such as ICA, South Bank, and Warehouse. It has played at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, the Bath and Brighton Festivals and at Dartington International Summer School. As well as playing at major UK Festivals and venues, the group has toured to many universities including Kings College London, Royal Holloway, Southampton, Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, Belfast, Anglia Polytechnic and Cardiff. New Music Players has made many studio and concert recordings for BBC Radio 3. From 1997-1999 the group worked extensively in the East of England in touring and education projects with schools funded by the Eastern Arts Board. In October 1997, the New Music Players toured Italy with the support of the British Council. The tour included a concert in Rome which was recorded live for Italian Radio. The group has appeared in the Rainbow Over Bath season, Oxford Contemporary Music Festival, and other prestigious concert series.
In October 2000 the New Music Players was appointed Ensemble in Residence at the University of York, a major residency which ran for three years. Other recent projects include Southampton University/RMA Music and Film Conference, and a live concert broadcast from York for the BBC Radio 3 ‘Hear and Now’ programme’s contribution to BBC Music Live 2001. Recently the group has commissioned significant new works from British composers James Wood, Rowland Sutherland, Rolf Hind, Gordon McPherson, Michael Finnissy and Edward Dudley Hughes.
Further information about the group, its plans, recordings and education work, may be found at: www.newmusicplayers.org.uk
