Jointly presented by Samuel Oliver-Sherry and Kirsty Fernie, this concert will document the history of the Italian madrigal, a sixteenth-century genre that took the country by storm in establishing a genre of vernacular, secular vocal music. In a summers afternoon concert set in the outdoor surroundings of Oxford’s University Parks, we present a unique programme that will immerse you into sixteenth century Italy, where madrigals were the ‘hit songs’ of the day, illustrating a narrative that ​relates ​this tradition to the popular music we experience nowadays.