This year's Grammy Awards ceremony, held at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles on 12 February, left a lasting impression on the world of classical music. The King's Singers, the renowned British ensemble, won Best Choral Performance for their album Light and Goldreleased in October 2010. The album topped the charts in the UK and US within a week of release. However, it was the Simple Gifts albumthat won the Grammy Award for Best Classical Crossover Album in 2009. The King's Singers (David Hurley, Timothy Wayne-Wright, tenor Paul Phoenix, baritones Christopher Bruerton, Cristopher Gabbitas and bass Jonathan Howard) recorded the album Light and Goldunder the baton of conductor Eric Whitacre and at the 54^thGrammy Awards the National Youth Choir of Great Britainperformed with them the song The Stolen Child, written for the group's 40^thanniversary in 2008.

The a cappella ensemble formed in 1968 at the King's College in Cambridge - this explains the group's name, gained wide acclaim in the '70s and have come to hold over 125 concerts annually, all over the world. Although the original members left the group, the purpose of the current members has remained the same, namely to equally educate and entertain audiences. The artists take a greater pride in the award they have recently received given that Light and Goldmarks the conducting debut of Eric Whitacre on Decca, the record company which released the album. By March 2012, when they will embark on a new tour in the US, The King's Singers will have held several concerts in… Australia, like the one they gave at Queensland Performing Arts Centre on 19 February.

Renée Fleming and 20^thcentury French vocal masterpieces

Since we have already mentioned Decca, I have to tell you that one of the latest albums released by the record company is that of soprano Renée Fleming, which contains 20^thcenturyFrench vocal masterpieces. Accompanying Flemming is the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, conducted by Seiji Ozawa. Poèmes- Ravel, Messiaen, Dutilleuxwas released on 20 February and features Maurice Ravel's Shéhérazade, Olivier Mesiaen's Poèmespour Miand Henri Dutilleux's Deux Sonnets de Jean Cassou. The album is completed by Dutilleux's Le Temps l'horloge,specially-orchestrated for this album and recorded in the presence of the composer. The critics have already praised the album, all agreeing that 'In Shéhérazade, she [Renée Fleming] revealed how marvellously her voice is maturing'.

World music at Carnegie Hall

February has been an eventful month for world music artists as well: Concha Buika, born in 1972 on the Spanish island of Mallorca to African parents, held a concert at theprestigious Carnegie Hall in New York on 8 February. Buika grew up among Spanish Romani people who taught her the traditional 'cante' flamenco born out of both suffering andjoy, which she mixes with jazz, soul and even electro music. By the time she released the first of her six albums in 2005, Buika had taken part in the soundtracks of several Spanish films. She continues to perform film music and even worked with Pedro Almodovar, the director of the film La piel que habito, in 2011. In 2008 her album Niña de Fuego was nominated for the 2008 Latin Grammy Award for Album of the Year.In 2009 she put out another album, El ultimo Trago, withChucho Valdés, about whom we have written before. Her latest album is entitled En mi piel and was released last year.