The Bach Society Orchestra has been an official undergraduate organization of the university since the 1954–55 academic school year.
The orchestra's annual composition and concerto competitions have become respected institutions of the Harvard music scene.
Alumni include cellist Yo-Yo Ma, composers John Adams and John Harbison, conductors Joel Lazar, Andrew Schenck, Alan Gilbert, Isaiah Jackson, Christopher Wilkins, Hugh Wolff, Samuel Wong, and Edwin Outwater, and members of top American symphony orchestras.
Then in 1951 an organizational meeting of the Harvard Music Club was called to discuss the forming of a chamber chorus and orchestra.
The next year a catalogue was compiled of all Harvard and Radcliffe musicians, and finally in the academic year 1954-55 were founded the Bach Society Chorus, Howard M. Brown '51, conductor, and the Bach Society Orchestra, Michael L. Greenebaum '55, conductor.