The Nash Ensemble has built up a remarkable reputation as one of Britain’s best known chamber groups and, through the dedication of its founder and Artistic Director, Amelia Freedman, and the calibre of its players, it has gained a similar reputation all over the world. The repertoire is vast, and the innovative and unusual programmes are as finely architectured as the beautiful Nash terraces in London from which the Group takes its name. Not that the Group is classically restricted: it performs with equal sensitivity and musicality works from Mozart to the Avant Garde. Indeed, the Ensemble is one of the major contributors to the recognition and promotion of many leading composers, through first performances of over 230 new works, including ninety-five commissions of pieces especially written for the Ensemble.

An impressive collection of recordings illustrates the same varied and colourful combination of classical masterpieces, little-known neglected gems and important contemporary works. Their recordings such as the Hyperion British Composers series are often nominated for awards, the most recent releases being the complete Walton Façade with Eleanor Bron and Richard Stilgoe: "Eleanor Bron and Richard Stilgoe make outstanding reciters while The Nash Ensemble could not be more idiomatic in pointing the young Walton's sparkling parodies" (The Guardian), a Vaughan Williams vocal disc with John Mark Ainsley which was nominated for a 2001 Gramophone Award and further recordings of Walton and Vaughan Williams chamber music. In the Autumn of 2002 Hyperion Records released a Nash two-CD set of première recordings of little-known early chamber works of Vaughan Williams.

They have also embarked on a contemporary music series for Black Box Records which includes chamber works by James MacMillan and Mark-Anthony Turnage: "One of the most enjoyable chamber music discs I have heard for a long while. It comprises seven works by Turnage - all appearing on CD for the first time, all given eloquent performances by members of The Nash Ensemble" (The Financial Times). A vocal and chamber music recording of works by Sir Harrison Birtwistle has also received much acclaim, including a Grammy nomination. They have also made numerous recordings for Virgin Classics and CRD and further contemporary music discs for NMC. The Nash's Teldec recording with the Arditti Quartet and Claron McFadden soprano of Birtwistle's Pulse Shadows won the 2002 Gramophone Award in the contemporary music section. Future recording plans include a further Turnage CD and discs of music by Saint-Saëns, Suk and Dvorak.

The Nash Ensemble makes many foreign tours: concerts have been given throughout Europe, the USA, in South America, Australia, Israel and Japan. The Group is a regular visitor to all the major British music festivals; it is heard on radio, television, at the BBC Proms, at the South Bank Centre, at music clubs throughout the country and at the Wigmore Hall where its regular concert series have been enthusiastically welcomed. The Independent said of a recent series, "The Nash Ensemble’s playing is a treasure in the crowded London concert scene. They too are great communicators." The Nash Ensemble have won numerous accolades including The Edinburgh Festival Critics music award "for general artistic excellence" and The Royal Philharmonic Society’s small ensemble award "for the breadth of its taste and its immaculate performance of a wide range of music." Such a group is surely an integral part of British musical life, and one knows that every Nash concert will be to the listener both a delight and an education. Recently, the Ensemble received the Royal Philharmonic Society's Music Award for Chamber Ensemble for the year 2002.

The Nash’s artistic director, Amelia Freedman, has received many honours including the MBE which was conferred upon her in 1989; an Honorary Doctorate from Bath University in 1993 for her distinguished services to chamber music and the Bath International Festival, of which she was Director from 1986 to 1993; and in 1996 was appointed Chevalier dans l’Ordre National du Merite by the President of France for her services to French music. She is currently Head of Classical Music at the South Bank Centre in London, and she has been Artistic Director of the Bath Mozartfest since 1995.