Since 1996, the New Music Orchestra explores modern music, looking for milestone compositions that engage the listener, innovational, sometimes forgotten works that deserve a public revival.

This activity has produced over a hundred premieres at Polish and international festivals, a number of broadcast and studio recordings that subsequently were highly rated by critics and the international music milieu: P2-Prize (Danish Radio award), Pizzicato Supersonic Award (Luxembourg), International Rostrum of Composers (Paris and Amsterdam), as well as a nomination to the 2003 Fryderyk Award.

The New Music Orchestra's performing competences, valued by composers, festival organisers, modern music promoters, and record companies alike, are the result of working with leading conductors, soloists, and sound engineers, as well as the Orchestra’s courage in undertaking artistic challenges, playing music considered unplayable and the rejected by other performers.

The New Music Orchestra has also inspired and organised many various artistic undertakings, including CD recordings, the New Music Festival, promotional concerts, first performances, and interdisciplinary events involving dancers, soloists, singers, multimedia, and computer technology, presented in atypical venues outside the traditional concert hall.

The New Music Orchestra has for many years participated in artistic and educational projects, working with Europe’s leading new music ensembles and institutions.

Starting with the 2014/15 season, the New Music Orchestra runs its own concert cycle, presenting monthly programmes of the latest music and 21st-century classics at the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra seat in Katowice.