Records of the purpose of the academy no longer exist, but according to John Hawkins in 1770, it was intended to "promote the study and practice of vocal and instrumental harmony".

[2][3] In 1731[3] it was renamed the Academy of Ancient Music, and continued to grow in membership, including the composers William Croft, Michael Christian Festing, Maurice Greene, Bernard Gates, Giovanni Bononcini, Senesino, Nicola Haym, Francesco Geminiani, Pier Francesco Tosi, John Ernest Galliard, Charles Dieupart, Jean-Baptiste Loeillet and Giuseppe Riva.

[citation needed] H. D. Johnstone called the Academy of Ancient Music "the most famous and influential institution of its kind in eighteenth-century London".

Recently, this trend has been revived with commissioning the harpsichordist, conductor, and scholar Mahan Esfahani to write a new orchestration of Bach's The Art of Fugue, which was premiered at the BBC Proms in July 2012.

Both Tavener recordings are on Harmonia Mundi (France), for whom the AAM has made a large number of CDs: Mozart's Zaïde and Christmas music by Schütz and his contemporaries (conducted by Paul Goodwin); violin concertos by J.S.

Choral recordings include works by Bach, Handel, Purcell and Vivaldi, with King's College Choir under Stephen Cleobury, and several recordings with Edward Higginbottom and New College Choir, including Pergolesi's Marian Vespers and Handel's coronation anthems, a collection of music from 17th and 18th-century English coronations.

[9] Past general managers and chief executives of the AAM have included Heather Jarman, Paul Hughes, Christopher Lawrence, Peter Ansell, Michael Garvey, Jonathan Manners, Ed Hossack and Alexander Van Ingen.