Composed of elite singers within the Cambridge University community, the Cambridge University Chamber Choir is the flagship choral ensemble of the Cambridge University Musical Society. The group performs material, much of it secular, that would not normally be attempted by the university's larger student groups. Groups of especially skilled singers have existed at Cambridge for some time; one such ancestor of the modern Cambridge University Chamber Choir performed the modern madrigal collection A Garland for the Queen during the coronation festivities for Elizabeth II in 1953. The Cambridge University Chamber Choir took its present form in 1969 when it was founded by musicologist and conductor Richard Marlow. A later director was Tim Brown, with whom the choir recorded A Garland for the Queen in 1991. In 2023, the choir issued the album Pavel Chesnokov: Sacred Choral Music.