The group performs a variety of styles and forms but it specializes in the Madrigal, a polyphonic and challenging musical style popular during the Renaissance period where singers and guests would gather around the table during a banquet to sight-sing and make music together. This served as the inspiration for their unique style of singing - singing seated in a semi-circle without a conductor. As Philippine ambassador of culture and goodwill, the Madz has had the pleasure and privilege of giving command performances for royalty and heads of state. These include Pope Paul 6th, Pope John Paul II, Presidents Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon, Queen Sofia of Spain, King Juan Carlos de Bourbon and Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew.
The influence of the Madz on the Philippine and Asian choral scene has been far-reaching. It has graduated more than 200 choral and vocal pedagogues from its ranks, actively involved in organizing and conducting choirs. Its corps of members, alumni composers and choral arrangers (Emmanuel Laureola, Fabian Obispo, Ruben Federizon, Ed and Annie Nepomuceno, Robert Delgado, Fr. Arnold Zamora, Christopher Borela, Anna Abeleda-Piquro, Nilo Alcala, etc.) continue to produce new compositions and choral settings of Philippine and Asian songs, thus contributing to the growth of choral literature in Asia. The Madz also maintains an active concert tour schedule, averaging two concert tours per year. Furthermore, their outreach concert tours take them to far-flung areas of the Philippines, seldom reached by other artists.
The Philippine Madrigal Singers first earned critical acclaim during their performance in the First Choruses of the World Festival at the Lincoln Center in New York in 1969. This concert welcomed them to the international choral community, eventually paving the way to joining the most distinguished international choral competitions - Spittal, Austria; Arezzo and Gorizia, Italy; Neuchatel, Switzerland; Debrecen, Hungary; Varna, Bulgaria; Tolosa, Spain; and Marktoberdorf in Germany, and winning all the top prizes.
In June 1997, the Philippine Madrigal Singers came home from their ninth world concert tour, winning the grand prize in the European Choral Grand Prix in Choral Singing in Tours, France, besting the five other grand prize winners of the most prestigious choral competition in Europe: Guido D'Arezzo, Italy; Debrecen, Hungary; Varna, Bulgaria; Gorizia, Italy; and Tolosa, Spain. The Madz displayed a virtuoso performance so moving one juror had to describe the group's music as the "most beautiful sound on earth".
In July 2006, the Madz won the grand prize (Grand Prix de la Ville de Tours) at the Florilege de Tours choral competition in France, making them eligible for the 2007 European Grand Prix for Choral Singing (to be held in Arezzo, Italy). In the same competition, the Madz were also awarded the first prize for Category III (mixed vocal ensemble), first prize for Category IV (free program) and the Prix University François Rabelais for best interpretation of a Renaissance program.
On August 26, 2007, the Philippine Madrigal Singers won the Grand Prize in the European Grand Prix in Choral Singing in Arezzo, Italy, making them the first choir in the competition's history to win it twice and the only Asian choir to do so.
On 27 July 2009, the Director-General of UNESCO, Mr Koïchiro Matsuura, designated the Philippine Madrigal Singers as UNESCO Artists for Peace at a ceremony which took place just before the group’s concert at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris.
