IAN Brown considers himself a very lucky man in a precarious industry.

For his second proper music-related job ever, he landed a spot with the prestigious Nash Ensemble - and has been there ever since.

"It's 26 years, this year," he reminisces. "But the actual ensemble began in 1965 - 40 years for them next year. Yes, it was very early into my career.

"Immediately after college, I had a four-year residency at Southampton University. Then I came back to London to freelance and went to Israel - it takes a while to get your name around.

"I'd known some of the people in the ensemble from the National Youth Orchestra and I used to deputise for my predecessor Clifford Benson so, when he decided to leave, I was around. That's how it goes in this industry - being in the right place at the right time."

The Nash Ensemble has both a nationwide and worldwide reputation as an outstanding chamber music group. Taking its name from Nash Terraces in London, and under the direction of its founder Amelia Freedman, it has become a major force for the promotion of leading composers, including Vaughan Williams.

"We do have a very broad repertoire, so it's great you're not playing the same things over and over again. Amelia is constantly commissioning new works, so the repertoire is a balance between old and new music. After 26 years, you need to have that variation."

In fact, the ensemble has given first performances of more than 230 new works, including 95 commissions of pieces especially written for the group. Whatever Amelia is doing, it's right on the money, with fewer than 20 changes of personnel over the four decades.

What's it like to spend 26 years with more or less the same group of musicians?

"As people say, you do spend longer with your work colleagues than with your family, but this isn't really a full-time post - it's part of our freelance lives. I do other solo and conducting work.

"There's a very close feeling among us, it's a group with a very good atmosphere. One day, you're doing a concert with the wind players, another day the percussion.

"We are all very good friends. It's a clich but it's true."

Having spent that amount of time in the classical industry, would he agree that there is a crisis going on within the music business?

"Crisis is perhaps too strong a word for us, but I do know that some major British orchestras have had serious crises. In the nature of life, with more things to attract attention and take up time, more and more concerts are competing for the same amount of people. Audiences are declining.

"And even within that audience, it tends to be middle-aged to elderly. But bizarrely, if you play in Japan, the hall is always packed with young people.

"It is a bit of a worry. When I started, there were lots of music clubs who'd have six to eight concerts a year and now they've had to reduce that to three or four, or have even packed up.

"There is this feeling that it is more difficult to draw people in. But, strangely, our London base has built up over time."

Has he any suggestions on how to improve the situation?

"It's all in the education - one hears so often that if you want children to have a musical education, you just have to do it yourself. It's declining and, of course, it is difficult as the classical music industry is tied to older or upper middle-class people, which is all nonsense - but that's its image. Young people don't get involved, which is a great shame.

"It shouldn't be either or - you can visit a classical concert and then go to a disco later in the evening!

"I look back and think I've been very lucky. I've enjoyed it and, what's very important, I've got so much from all sorts of musicians.

"When I was younger, I worked with people who had so much experience. Now I'm older, I'm working with younger musicians and learning from them. It's both musically and personally stimulating."

The Nash Ensemble will be at The Anvil, Basingstoke, on Wednesday. Tickets, priced £17.50, are available from the box office on 01256 844244.