In this year in which we join together to celebrate the extraordinary reign of Queen Elizabeth II, we take the opportunity to explore the musical glories and legacy of her predecessor, Elizabeth I, Oriana the Virgin Queen. Vaunted by the artists of her reign as both patron and muse, she was portrayed in poetry and music as Oriana, the mythical virgin queen, the ideal of royal grace and purity, and was the subject of a sequence of madrigals dedicated to her by the most famous composers of the day.

In this project, coached by Robin Blaze, students will trace the beginnings of the flourishing English style of secular vocal music, born out of both harmonised, developed solo song and the majestic tradition of sacred choral writing, through to the uniquely decadent, insular quality of the English madrigal.