The Hereford Times

Stars grace a glittering Brit show

3:51pm Friday 9th May 2008

A host of classical music stars gathered at London's Royal Albert Hall for what was billed as the biggest show in the history of the Classical Brit awards.

The glittering ceremony played host to some of the biggest selling artists in the classical music world, including tenor Andrea Bocelli and pianist Josh Groban.

Blake, the ex-choirboys who formed on social networking site Facebook, became only the second act to win Album of the Year for a debut album in the history of the prize.

The quartet, who consist of 20-somethings Ollie Baines, Stephen Bowman, Jules Knight and Dom Tighe, signed a million-pound, five-album deal with record label Universal last summer.

In other awards, Scottish violinist Nicola Benedetti was named Young British Classical Performer and Russian singer Anna Netrebko won Female Artist of the Year.

Cellist Steven Isserlis was presented with the Critics' Choice award and the Soundtrack of the Year award was won by James Newton Howard for Blood Diamond, the thriller starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

The ninth annual Classical Brits were hosted by Myleene Klass at the Royal Albert Hall and will be broadcast later this month on ITV1.

Performances included a duet from Bocelli and Netrebko, Sarah Brightman, Hayley Westenra, Jonathan Ansell and Josh Groban.

Groban, the biggest selling classical artist in the United States and the 2008 Singer of the Year award winner, said it was "a real honour" to perform for the first time at the Classical Brits.

Violinist Nigel Kennedy was meant to perform, but was ousted by organisers after he refused to not play with his choice of accompaniment, the Bond string quartet.