The University of the Philippines Madrigal Singers (UPMS), also known as the Philippine Madrigal Singers or simply Madz , is one of the major cultural groups based in the University of the Philippines, Diliman. Its current conductor and musical director is Mark Anthony Carpio. They are the first choir to win the European Grand Prix for Choral Singing twice (in 1997 and in 2007). The Madz is one of the most awarded choirs in Asia, having consistently won all the prizes in the most prestigious international choral competitions for many years. Because of their impressive track record and musical virtuosity, the Philipppine Madrigal Singers is now regarded as the one of the world's best choirs. The Philippine Madrigal Singers was organized as the University of the Philippines Madrigal Singers in 1963 by Prof. Andrea Veneracion, proclaimed National Artist for Music in 1999. The group is composed of students, faculty and alumni from the different colleges of the University of the Philippines. Its present choirmaster since 2001 is Mark Anthony Carpio. The group performs a variety of styles and forms but specializes in the madrigal, a polyphonic and challenging musical style popular during the Renaissance 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. The influence of the Madrigal Singers 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 member and alumni composers and choral arrangers (Emmanuel Laureola, Fabian Obispo, Ruben Federizon, Ed Nepomuceno, Annie Nepomuceno, Robert Delgado, Arnold Zamora, Christopher Borela, Anna Abeleda Piquero, 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 Singers maintain an active concert tour schedule, averaging two concert tours a year. Their outreach concert tours take them to far-flung areas of the Philippines, seldom reached by choral artists. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Philippine+Madrigal+Singers">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.