The headlines may have all been about Amy Winehouse, but one resident of the sleepy Warwickshire village of Henley-in-Arden won a Grammy in Los Angeles on Sunday without even noticing.
Simon Halsey, director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus, won the award for Best Choral Performance for the EMI recording of Ein Deutsches Requiem by Brahms with the Berlin Rundfunkchor and the Berlin Philharmonic. He shared it with the Philharmonic's conductor, Sir Simon Rattle.
But speaking shortly after he arrived home from Berlin yesterday Mr Halsey, 49, said that he had been too concerned about a performance of Bruckner's Mass in E minor in the German capital on Sunday to think about the awards. It was only when he got up to catch the early flight to Birmingham yesterday that he saw a text message from friends in America.
"They are fantastically excited in Berlin, which is very nice because this doesn't happen that often," he said.
"I have been nominated for a Grammy four times before for recordings with the CBSO, but this is the first time I've won."
Mr Halsey has directed the CBSO's choir since 1983 and took on its Berlin counterpart eight years ago, renewing his long-running partnership with Sir Simon.
He said that both he and Sir Simon were initially nervous about taking on Ein Deutsches Requiem in Germany, where people have the music in their blood.
He added that the German press, which has often been lukewarm about Sir Simon's conducting in the central German repertoire, initially gave a guarded welcome to the recording, which has since won a Gramophone Award in Britain and a major German prize.
