Oxford Camerata gave its first concert at the Maison Française in Oxford on 22 May 1984. The core group comprises twelve singers with or without keyboard accompaniment, but for certain projects the choir has been made up of as few as four singers and as many as forty. After a performance of Bach’s St Matthew Passion in the Snape Maltings on Good Friday 1986, Sir Peter Pears, who was at the performance, agreed to become the Oxford Camerata’s first patron.