It accepts singers of all age groups from the wider Dunedin community and performs large-scale classical choral works.

The choir is usually involved in four or five concerts a year and regularly performs with the Dunedin Symphony Orchestra.

In October of 1863 the Dunedin Philharmonic Society, conducted by W. Haydn Flood, was founded by George R. West.

The Dunedin Choral Society, conducted by Charles J. Bates, was founded in the same week with its first practice being held on 28 October.

[8] The Dunedin Choral Society continued to give performances during the First World War, and by 1939 Alfred Walmsley led a choir of 80 members, reduced from about 180 after auditions were held for the first time in 1937.

[14] Notable conductors include Sidney Wolf (1914–1922), Victor Galway (1922–1925), Alfred Walmsley (1933–1943), Jack Speirs (1966–1973) and David Burchell (2000–present).