SIR PAUL MCCARTNEY - STING AND MCCARTNEY UP FOR CLASSICAL BRIT

Works from Sting and Sir Paul McCartney have been nominated for best album of the year at the Classical Brit awards.

Sting's Songs From The Labyrinth, released in October last year, features music from an 17th century composer accompanied by the lute.

In Sir Paul McCartney's tribute to his late wife Linda, Ecce Cor Meum (Behold My Heart), the former Beatle teamed up with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and the boys of King's College Choir, Cambridge, and Magdalen College, Oxford.

Also nominated for album of the year are Welsh singers Katherine Jenkins and Bryn Terfel, tenor Alfie Boe and violinist Nicola Benedetti, who has also been given the nod for best young British classical performer and instrumentalist of the year.

This year's awards ceremony will be held at the Royal Albert Hall in London on Thursday May 3rd and will be shown on television three days later.

Performing on the night will be mezzo-soprano Jenkins, the Fron Male Voice Choir and American violinist Joshua Bell.

This year's lifetime achievement recipient Dr Vernon Handley will conduct a performance of one movement from Elgar's cello concerto performed by Natalie Chen.