Press Releases

Intensive Birgit Nilsson-days with international star line-up

An opera gala presenting over one hundred performers, including international star soloists and guest speaker, Mark Levengood, will be the highlight and finale of this year’s Birgit Nilsson Days. The 13 August concert takes place on a large outdoor stage at the Birgit Nilsson Museum, in the meadow adjacent to Birgit’s family home. Eight soloists will participate, including two young stars who perform for the first time in Scandinavia: soprano Joyce El-Khoury and tenor Jonathan Tetelman. “Joyce El-Khoury is miraculous,…

Intensive Birgit Nilsson-days with international star line-up

Yo-Yo Ma to receive the 2022 Birgit Nilsson Prize

Birgit Nilsson Foundation President, Susanne Rydén, announced today that the 2022 Birgit Nilsson Prize will be awarded to cellist, Yo-Yo Ma. At one million US dollars, the Prize is the largest in classical music, awarded to artists and institutions who have contributed an important chapter to music history. Yo-Yo Ma is the first instrumentalist to receive the Prize, which will be presented to him by His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustaf at the Prize Ceremony on October 18 at the…

Yo-Yo Ma to receive the 2022 Birgit Nilsson Prize

Cornelia Beskow-Birgit Nilsson Stipendium 2022

The 2022 Birgit Nilsson Stipendium is awarded to the Swedish lyric dramatic soprano, Cornelia Beskow, who receives 200.000 SEK (equivalent to $20.000) on August 12 when she will perform in Birgit Nilsson’s parish church at Västra Karup, as a part of the celebrations for this year’s “Birgit Nilsson Days”. Winner of the 2017 Lauritz Melchior International Singing Competition, where she was awarded all four prizes, Cornelia Beskow trained at the Copenhagen Opera Academy (Soloist Class, 2009-2012) and the Stockholm University…

Cornelia Beskow-Birgit Nilsson Stipendium 2022

Hillevi Martinpelto – Master Class 2022

Soprano Hillevi Martinpelto debuted at the Royal Opera in Stockholm as Cio Cio San in Madame Butterfly and has since performed on most of the world’s leading opera and concert hall stages, for example in Berlin, Munich, Cologne, Dresden, Leipzig, Salzburg, Vienna, Milan, Florence, Rome, Amsterdam, Brussels, Edinburgh, London (where she participated in 8 Proms at the Royal Albert Hall), Glyndebourne, New York, Los Angeles, Cleveland, Tokyo and Hong Kong. She has worked with conductors such as Sir John Eliot…

Hillevi Martinpelto – Master Class 2022

Birgit Nilsson Stiftelsen to announce the 2022 Prize Recipient

In exactly one year from today, on 17 May 2022, the fifth recipient of the Birgit Nilsson Prize will be announced on Birgit’s birthday. The largest Prize in Classical Music, the 2022 recipient will receive 1 million dollars, which will be presented at a Gala Ceremony held in Stockholm in October of the same year.  As Gramophone Magazine wrote following the Prize Ceremony in 2014: “We live in times when it’s increasingly hard for classical music to get itself discussed…

Birgit Nilsson Stiftelsen to announce the 2022 Prize Recipient

Johanna Wallroth – Birgit Nilsson Stipendium 2021

This year’s recipient of the Birgit Nilsson Stipendium is Soprano Johanna Wallroth. She receives SEK 200 000 which, thanks to an anonymous donor, has recently doubled in value, making it one of Sweden’s largest scholarships. Johanna Wallroth was thrust into the limelight in 2019 when she took First Prize in the prestigious Mirjam Helin International Singing Competition with her “immediately engaging, intelligent and detailed performance” (Bachtrack). She subsequently joined the Opernstudio of the Wiener Staatsoper from the start of the 20/21 season…

Johanna Wallroth – Birgit Nilsson Stipendium 2021

Miah Persson – Master Class 2021

Internationally active Swedish soprano Miah Persson, grew up in Hudiksvall and now lives in England. After her education at the Stockholm Academy of Opera, she made her debut as Susanna in Mozart's Figaro's wedding in 1998 and has since been a sought-after guest on the world's opera and concert hall stages. In 2011, Miah Persson was appointed court singer. About this year's assignment, Miah Persson says: “It is with great anticipation that I look forward to leading this year's master…

Miah Persson – Master Class 2021

Emma Sventelius – Birgit Nilsson Stipendium 2020

The 2020 Birgit Nilsson Stipendium is awarded to 30 year old Swedish Mezzo-Soprano, Emma Sventelius who receives 200.000 SEK on August 7 in Västra Karup, Skåne, when she will perform in recital as a part of the celebrations for this year’s Birgit Nilsson Days, hosted by the Birgit Nilsson Museum.  Like Birgit Nilsson herself, this year’s Scholarship recipient could claim “I sang before I could walk; I even sang in my dreams”. Emma Sventelius was singing in her local church choir in Skåne at the age…

Emma Sventelius – Birgit Nilsson Stipendium 2020

Birgit Nilsson Prize 2018 to Nina Stemme

Nina Stemme has been announced as the recipient of the 2018 Birgit Nilsson Prize Internationally famous Swedish-born soprano Nina Stemme is in great demand worldwide. She is a frequent guest at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, La Scala in Milan, Wiener Staatsoper, Opera Bastille in Paris and the Royal Opera Houses in London and Stockholm, to name just a few. As a dramatic soprano, Nina Stemme has continued the great tradition of Kirsten Flagstad and Birgit Nilsson. She has…

Birgit Nilsson Prize 2018 to Nina Stemme

Birgit Nilsson Prize 2014 to Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

Birgit Nilsson Foundation President Rutbert Reisch announced today that the Birgit Nilsson Prize for 2014 will be awarded to the VIENNA PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA at the Konserthuset (Stockholm Concert Hall) in Stockholm, Sweden on October 8, 2014. This award will be given in the presence of H.M. King Carl XVI Gustaf and H.M. Queen Silvia. As VPO President Clemens Hellsberg accepts this honour on the orchestra’s behalf, the entire Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra will be present in Stockholm to perform under the…

Birgit Nilsson Prize 2014 to Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra