SEK 250,000 will be awarded to this year’s Birgit Nilsson Stipendium recipient, Swedish soprano Karolina Bengtsson. The official announcement was made on May 17, Birgit’s birthday, during celebrations at the Birgit Nilsson Museum. On August 8, Karolina Bengtsson will give her Stipendium recital in Birgit’s \u201cown\u201d V\u00e4stra Karup church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
”What an honour! It is an incredible feeling to be awarded the prestigious Birgit Nilsson Stipendium\u201d said Karolina on receiving the news.\u201dIn addition to the honour, it is also recognition – a reinforcing boost to continue following my dreams. My deepest thanks”. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Karolina Bengtson has recently established herself internationally with engagements at Oper Frankfurt and Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich. At this year\u2019s Birgit Nilsson Festival she will give her Stipendium Recital and perform the role of Priestess in an open air concert performance of Verdi’s Aida<\/em> at the B\u00e5stad Tennis Stadium. She also makes her debut at the Festival d\u2019Aix-en-Provence as Camille in the new production of Charpentier’s Louise<\/em> and at the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music as Dori in Traetta’s Iphigenia in Tauride<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Since the start of the 2023\/24 season Karolina Bengtsson has been engaged in the soloist ensemble at Oper Frankfurt where she has performed roles such as Silvia in a new production of Mozart’s Ascanio in Alba<\/em>, Belisa in Wolfgang Fortner’s In seinem Garten liebt Don Perlimplin Belisa <\/em>and Pamina in The Magic Flute<\/em>. This season she made her debut with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Together with violinist Malin Broman and Musica Vitae, Karolina has premiered Death and Juliet<\/em>, a work by composer Daniel Nelson with libretto by Tuva-Lisa Rangstr\u00f6m. Her concert repertoire embraces a wide range of lieder, concert and oratorio arias, from works including Haydn’s Die Sch\u00f6pfung<\/em>, Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem<\/em>, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion<\/em>, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater<\/em> and Lars-Erik Larsson’s God in Disguise<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Karolina Bengtsson studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen and the Mozarteum in Salzburg, where her teachers were Barbara Bonney and Wolfgang Holzmair in lieder interpretation and Gaiva Bandzinaite in role preparation. She sang her first Pamina at the Mozarteum in Salzburg in 2021. She has previously received First Prize – the Golden Victoria – at the DEBUT International Singing Competition 2020 and Best Young Artist Award at the international Meistersinger von N\u00fcrnberg competition 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Birgit Nilsson Stipendium is awarded by the Birgit Nilsson Stipendium Stiftelsen, whose chairman Bengt Hall, will present the scholarship at the recital in the church of V\u00e4stra Karup on August 8. The concert is part of the Birgit Nilsson Festival 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n —<\/p>\n\n\n\n Birgit Nilsson established the Birgit Nilsson Stipendium in memory of her first singing teacher, Ragnar Blennow, and the scholarship was first awarded by Birgit in 1973.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Birgit Nilsson (1918-2005) was one of the leading opera singers of the 20th century. Her unique voice and superb stage presence were acclaimed by critics and audiences alike. She won international recognition as the world’s leading dramatic soprano.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This year’s Birgit Nilsson Festival 3-9 August begins with a master class and concert led by Camilla Tilling and ends with Aida, a large open-air concert at B\u00e5stad tennis stadium. Tickets for all concerts are sold via juliusbiljettservice.se Ticket office +46 (0)775-700 400.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Birgit Nilsson Museum:
Torbj\u00f6rn Eriksson, Press contact , +46 (0)70-634 43 53<\/p>\n\n\n\n