The mission of Brave New Works is to engage, enrich, and educate through the medium of contemporary music. The ensemble was founded in 1997 by percussionists Chris Froh and Eli Shapiro, and conductor Chris Younghoon Kim at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. The musicians of Brave New Works have performed all over the world and have collaborated with some of the most influential composers of the 20th and 21st centuries including Luciano Berio, Eliott Carter, William Bolcom, Leslie Bassett, and George Crumb.

In addition, Brave New Works has commissioned and premiered numerous works for its unique instrumentation of string quartet, piano, flute, harp, clarinet, and soprano. The Art of the Fugue Project of 2002 marked Brave New Works' most ambitious commissioning project, soliciting composers from around the United States, and Europe for scores to be conceived in response to Bach's towering masterpiece. Brave New Works has served its educational mission through several college and university residencies around the country including stays at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon, the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington, and Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. In October 2003 Brave New Works served as Ensemble in Residence at the Festival of New Music and Art at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio.