The ensemble has released eight highly regarded CDs over the years and has performed with world-class visiting guest artists. The orchestra is dedicated to the performance of both traditional jazz masterworks and contemporary repertoire and regularly performs the music of Canadian composers and of McGill students and faculty.

McGill Group in Medical Genetics was formed in 1972 and was supported through funding by the Medical Research Council and subsequently by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) until 2009. The group originally formed in 1972 under the primary direction of Dr. F. Clarke Fraser and Dr. Charles Scriver and at the recommendation of Malcolm Brown, President of Canada’s Medical Research Council. During the latter half of the 20th century, medical genetics was a coalescing field, the development of which progressed rapidly during the 1960s and 1970s as clinicians sought to apply research into chromosomal abnormalities and biochemical genetics to the care and counseling of individual patients. The fourteen members of the McGill Group in Medical Genetics were: F. Clarke Fraser, Charles Scriver, Rima Rozen, David Rosenblatt, Reynold Gold, Leonard Pinsky, Emil Skamene, Peter Hechtman, Eric Shoubridge, Mark Trifiro, Andrew Karaplis, Robert MacKenzie, Roy Gravel, and Susie Tenenhouse. They represented medical specializations including teratology, biochemistry, population genetics, and endocrinology. Group members produced over 1,400 articles during the course of the group's history.

These chamber ensembles come in a wide variety of formations, including madrigal ensembles, vocal duos and trios with continuo, instrumental trios and quartets with continuo, and string quartets. They perform repertoire ranging from Josquin chansons to Haydn string quartets on period instruments.

The McGill Dames Society was founded in 1965. It was a university sponsored organization for the wives of graduate students. Its purpose was to provide practical assistance to the wives of new graduate students coming to McGill and settling in Montreal, to promote the social fellowship of its members, broaden their interests, and to help them feel a part of McGill University and Montreal. The organization provided information regarding housing, employment opportunities, transportation, child care services, educational opportunities, cultural and recreational activities. In 1973 the McGill Dames Society became McGill Graduate Student Associates. It consisted, not only of wives of graduate students, but also of female graduate students. The McGill Graduate Student Associates ended its functions in 1975.

The McGill Contemporary Music Ensemble (CME) is a high-level chamber orchestra entirely dedicated to both twentieth century repertoire and composers of our times. Founded in 1970, it has been directed successively by Richard Lawton and Eugene Plawutsky (1970-1986), Bruce Mather (1986-1996), and Denys Bouliane (1996-2013). The CME is currently under the direction of conductor Guillaume Bourgogne.