The second-oldest chamber music organization in the United States began modestly in the basement of the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church. Three women attended an informal concert at the church by a quartet of off-duty theater musicians and came away impressed with the quality of the music-making. Emily Gray Hamlin, Evelyn Choate and Mrs. Carlos Alden resolved to create an organization devoted to symphonic and chamber concerts. They formed the Buffalo Symphony Society, drew up a plan, raised funds and began organizing.
The first chamber performance took place March 12, 1924 in the ballroom of the newly-built Hotel Statler. First-chair players from the Buffalo Symphony Orchestra performed quartets by Mozart and Schubert. A soprano and contralto sang duets of Schumann and Brahms. Although the first concerts presented local musicians, the new chamber organization soon brought in its first world-class group, the famous Flonzaley Quartet, an ensemble that dramatically raised the level of professionalism of the string quartet, serving as a forerunner of today's full-time chamber ensembles.