Birgit Nilsson Prize recognizes festival celebrating past and future of opera

STOCKHOLM — “Today’s stage is a music celebration that honors both the legacy of Birgit Nilsson and this year’s laureate, France’s Aix-en-Provence Festival,” said Susanne Ruden, head of the Birgit Nilsson Foundation, opening the 2025 Birgit Nilsson Prize ceremony at Stockholm Concert Hall on Oct. 21. Just 10 months after Korean author Han Kang received the Nobel Prize in literature on the same stage, King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden once again took the podium, this time to present the world’s most prestigious classical music award. Established by legendary Swedish soprano Birgit Nilsson (1918-2005), who donated her personal fortune to create the award, the Birgit Nilsson Prize is presented every three years to recognize outstanding contributions to classical music. Valued at 1 million dollars, it is the largest monetary award in the classical field. This year, the honor went to the Aix-en-Provence Festival, the first time a festival has received the prize rather than an individual artist. When announcing the laureate in May, the foundation said the festival “set a significWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times