Conductors originally included Ronald Penny, Peter Bailey and Jane Malone, and the Group was recognised as an important part of the early cultural development of Canberra.

With assistance from the Federal Governments' arts funding body, the Australia Council, large-scale choral-orchestral compositions were commissioned by the Society for the Australian Bicentenary in 1988 (Richard Mills's Five Meditations from the Poetry of David Campbell) and for the Centenary of Federation in 2001 (Peter and Martin Wesley-Smith's Black Ribbon).

For many years, the Society provided the choir for the annual Anzac Day service held at the Australian War Memorial.

Guest conductors and soloists of national and international repute who have worked with the Society include Nicholas Braithwaite, Joan Carden, Margreta Elkins, Gerald English, Donald Shanks, Clifford Grant and Tobias Cole.

[8] For their 2015 performance of Handel's Messiah, Jennifer Gall of The Canberra Times praised the society for "creating a concert that was inclusive of new singers and satisfying for the audience.