The Birgit Nilsson Prize is the largest prize in classical music, awarded approximately every three years to an active artist or institution who has contributed an important chapter to music history. The Prize serves not only as a recognition of the recipients’ outstanding achievements, but as testament to the importance of passion and dedication in musical life and an incentive for younger musicians as they embark on their careers.

It was Birgit Nilsson herself who stipulated the criteria for the Prize and personally chose Plácido Domingo as the first recipient, writing his name on a piece of paper that was sealed in an envelope and not opened until three years after she died. Domingo received the Prize in 2009 in a moving award ceremony at the Royal Swedish Opera, on the same stage where Birgit Nilsson launched her operatic career more than half a century earlier. Successive recipients have been proposed by an international Advisory Panel of experts and voted on by the Board of the Birgit Nilsson Foundation. Riccardo Muti was the Prize recipient in 2011, followed by the Vienna Philharmonic in 2014 and in 2018, the year which celebrated the 100th anniversary of Birgit Nilsson’s birth, the Prize was awarded to Swedish dramatic soprano, Nina Stemme.

In May 2022 Yo-Yo Ma was announced as the fifth recipient and first instrumentalist to receive the Prize. Commenting at the time of the announcement, Birgit Nilsson Foundation President, Susanne Rydén, said “In today’s challenging and ever-evolving world, when classical music is too easily marginalised, Yo-Yo Ma embodies everything that Birgit Nilsson wished for in a fellow-artist when she created this Prize. Through exceptional musicianship, passion and dedication, Yo-Yo Ma’s commitment to music helps us to imagine and build a stronger society and better future. His support and engagement continuously inspires new generations of musicians as they embark on their own musical lives.“

The Birgit Nilsson Stipendium is given to promising young singers and is awarded from a fund that she established in 1969. The first Stipendium was presented in 1973 and today it is awarded annually at the church of Västra Karup in South Sweden, where Birgit herself sang often during her life. Throughout her career, Birgit Nilsson felt a personal responsibility for the future of opera and wanted to contribute by supporting the continued musical education of talented young Swedish singers.

The 2023 Birgit Nilsson Stipendium was awarded to mezzo-soprano Ida Ränzlöv who receives 200.00 SEK. Currently an ensemble member of the Staatsoper Stuttgart, Ida Ränzlöv studied at the Malmö Academy of Music and Royal College of Music Opera Studio in London where she graduated in 2018. In 2022 she appeared as Cherubino (The Marriage of Figaro) at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera and with Glyndebourne Touring. She has also participated in productions at the Royal Theater in Copenhagen and Confidencen Opera Festival in Ulriksdal (Stockholm), where she returns this year for a new production of Rameau’s opera Dardanus.

The Birgit Nilsson Museum was opened in 2010 at the farmhouse in Svenstad, South Sweden, where the singer lived with her parents until she was 23 years old. It is the place she returned to throughout her life and where she was continuously involved and committed to concerts within the local community. Today visitors can experience the farmhouse preserved as it was during Birgit Nilsson’s lifetime, explore the permanent and annual exhibitions, access the archive of recordings, letters and documents and follow the 9 km round hiking trail from the farm to the church of Västra Karup, where Sweden’s legendary opera singer was buried.

Every summer the Museum hosts the “Birgit Nilsson Days” with annual masterclasses and concerts in the church of Västra Karup, featuring both established and young Swedish opera singers – maintaining responsibility for nurturing and educating the next generation of talent, in the same spirit that Birgit Nilsson exemplified throughout her life.