[4] Artists who have worked with the orchestra include Nicholas Daniel, its Honorary Vice President Zygmunt Krauze, and guitarist Timothy Walker[who?].

The ACO was active from 1979 to 1985 as a student and semi-professional orchestra that consisted of musicians from the NYO, RAM, and the City of London School.

It performed a wide range of classical and contemporary chamber works, until it was disbanded when its founder, Geoffrey Álvarez, left London in 1985.

In 2007 the ACO was re-formed as a professional orchestra and charitable trust, with the goal of performing music by contemporary international composers, who are little known in Britain, alongside that of their better known British colleagues.

The orchestra performed the London premières of the Tansman Clarinet Concerto[5] with clarinettist Alison Turriff, his Second Sinfonietta, and Diptyque.