Uuden Ajan Ensemble is an orchestra that adapts to various configurations, and wants to play the music of its time. The orchestra's instrumentation consists mainly of young, enthusiastic professional musicians and advanced professional music students. Since its founding in 2011, the Uuden Ajan Ensemble has performed Finnish contemporary music, both as premieres and re-performances. Tapio von Boehm has served as conductor and artistic director from the very beginning. Over the years, a large part of the Uuden Ajan Ensemble's contemporary music concerts have been broadcasted by YLE.

The Helsinki Composers' Festival focuses on one Finnish composer at a time, presenting a cross-section of their music. Founded by the Uuden Ajan Ensemble in 2019, the theme composers of the festival have been Magnus Lindberg, Sebastian Fagerlund, Uljas Pulkkis. This year highlights the work of Cecilia Damström.

Santeri Kaipiainen describes the Uuden Ajan Ensemble in the Rondo magazine as follows: “The Uuden Ajan Ensemble, founded in 2011, is a curiosity among domestic independent orchestras. It focuses on contemporary music, but does not receive government subsidies (like Avanti), is larger than the chamber ensembles Uusinta, Zagros or defunensemble, and moves somewhat less along the lines of the “Darmstadt School”. Under the artistic direction of one of the founders, Tapio von Boehm, the ensemble is periodically assembled from professional orchestra players, freelancers and advanced students of the Sibelius Academy. The focus of the group’s program is on domestic orchestral music by living composers.”

A typical ensemble lineup is sixteen players, but the Uuden Ajan Ensemble gathers from under ten to almost sixty musicians, depending on the composition. The selected composers write colourful music, which is perhaps more approachable than the most austere contemporary music aesthetics. Their compositions generally follow a long line of classical music history.

In their concerts, the Uuden Ajan Ensemble has played music by Uljas Pulkkis, Sebastian Fagerlund, Sebastian Hill, Ilari Kaila, Minna Leinonen, Johan Tallgren, Ilkka von Boehm, Sampo Haapamäki, Perttu Haapanen, Adam Vilagi, Sauli Zinovjev, Lotta Wennäkoski and Magnus Lindberg. The Uuden Ajan Ensemble has commissioned works from Uljas Pulkkis, Ilari Kaila, Adam Vilagi and Ilkka von Boehm.