The choir was founded in the 1940s, continuing the tradition set by the Zagreb Madrigalists. Initially working as a chamber ensemble under Mladen Pozajić, and later Slavko Zlatić, it eventually developed into the first Croatian professional choir. During the last seventy years, its artistic identity was established by a number of eminent musicians, whose efforts, after Igor Kuljerić, one of Croatia's greatest conductors, are nowadays continued in the work of chief-conductor Tonči Bilić.