Music-makers love being in small groups (6)

I believe the answer is:

cellos

'music-makers' is the definition.
(cello is a type of musical instrument)

'love being in small groups' is the wordplay.
'love' becomes 'o' (love means zero in tennis).
'being in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'small groups' becomes 'cells' (eg a cell of spies).
'o' placed into 'cells' is 'CELLOS'.

(Another definition for cellos that I've seen is " Large stringed instruments".)

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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