Conductor, multi-instrumentalist, and continuo player György Vashegyi formed the Purcell Choir in 1990 for a performance of Purcell's opera Dido and Aeneas. He established the period instrument Orfeo Orchestra the following year to accompany a performance of Monteverdi's opera Orfeo, the first such performance in Hungary. Vashegyi's intent was to establish ongoing organizations for the performance of Baroque and Classical-era music in an authentic way. The roughly 30 members of the choir are professional singers, and many are also members of other Hungarian choral groups. The group has performed little-known pieces by early composers such as Benedek Istvánffy, with whom it made its recording debut in 1998 on the Hungaroton label, backed by the Orfeo Orchestra, on the album Istvánffy: St. Benedict Mass; Kraus: Requiem.

The choir specializes in Baroque and Classical-period works, but its repertory stretches as far back as the music of Carlo Gesualdo and as far forward as contemporary music. It has appeared around Hungary and beyond and has often been heard at festivals, including the Hungarian Haydn Society's Haydn Festival, held at the Esterházy Palace in Fertöd, and the Toujours Mozart Festival in Salzburg and Vienna. Vashegyi remains the group's director, but the choir has also appeared with other conductors, such as in a 2004 joint appearance with Capella Savaria under the direction of Nicolas McGegan. The Purcell Choir has mostly recorded with the Orfeo Orchestra, but it has also been heard with the Erdody Chamber Orchestra on a 2008 recording of works by Georg Lickl, and a cappella, on a 2010 release featuring the Responsories for Holy Week by Gennaro Manna. That was the choir's last recording on Hungaroton; it has since recorded for Glossa and Accent, releasing a recording of Michael Haydn's oratorio Kaiser Constantin I: Feldzug und Sieg on the latter in 2022. ~ James Manheim, Rovi