The music director Fritz Reiner's original intent was to utilize the chorus for the two weeks of subscription concerts that season, performing George Frideric Handel's Messiah in December and Giuseppe Verdi's Requiem in April.
Eighty-one-year-old Bruno Walter led the chorus in its official debut concerts at Orchestra Hall on March 13 and 14, 1958, a performance of Mozart's Requiem.
The chorus made its first commercial recording for RCA — Sergei Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky - on March 7, 1959, with Fritz Reiner conducting the orchestra.
2 (Resurrection) conducted by the CSO's associate conductor and Ravinia Festival artistic director Walter Hendl.
The chorus had its first Carnegie Hall appearance on November 12, 1967, singing Hans Werner Henze's The Sicilian Muses and Maurice Ravel's Daphnis and Chloe with Jean Martinon conducting.