Birgit Nilsson Prize

Birgit Nilsson Prize

The Birgit Nilsson Prize is an international music prize founded by, and named for, by the famous opera singer. It awards a single performing artist, a conductor or a production in the field of opera or classical music with one million dollars.

The dramatic soprano Birgit Nilsson (1918 - 2005) decided towards the end of her career to establish a foundation for a prize to be awarded every second or third year in the amount of one million dollars for ”outstanding achievements by, a singer in the field of opera or concert or oratorio, or a conductor in the classical field of opera or concert, or a specific production by an opera company, as long as this production is outstandingly cast and conducted and, most importantly, staged in the spirit of the composer.”

The award was announced to the public only three years after the death of its founder by the Birgit Nilsson Foundation in Stockholm on 5 December 2008. It was the wish of Birgit Nilsson that the award had to be kept secret until then.