The Nobel Prize banquet is back, with Nobel Prize laureates and other guests being welcomed to the Blue Hall of Stockholm City Hall for the first time since 2019. This will be celebrated with a grand musical divertissement. Singer-songwriter and composer Rufus Wainwright will guide the audience through his musical universe together with opera singer Elin Rombo and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Hans Ek. In addition, the 2020 and 2021 laureates will be celebrated during this year’s prize award ceremony at Konserthuset Stockholm with the world premiere of a brand new, specially written work by Swedish composer Andrea Tarrodi. Rufus Wainwright will also perform at the Nobel Week Dialogue, a day-long scientific conference in Stockholm.
“We have a long tradition of welcoming both international artists and Swedish stars to provide musical interludes during the Nobel Week. I especially look forward to the music during the Nobel Day, 10 December − in particular the world premiere of Laus Canticum (A Song of Praise), which we asked Andrea Tarrodi to compose in honour of the 2020 and 2021 laureates,” says Vidar Helgesen, Executive Director of the Nobel Foundation.
“I am extremely honored and excited to come to Stockholm to sing at the Nobel Prize banquet this year. And it is particularly meaningful for me to sing with the wonderful Swedish soprano Elin Rombo who so beautifully created the title role of my first opera Prima Donna at the Royal Opera House two years ago during the height of the pandemic. Sweden has been so incredibly supportive of my career over the years,” says singer-songwriter and composer Rufus Wainwright.
The Nobel Prize award ceremony
During the award ceremony at Konserthuset Stockholm (the Stockholm Concert Hall), the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Emilia Hoving will provide the music. Emilia Hoving is one of today’s most promising young Finnish conductors. She has led the Stockholm Philharmonic on several occasions. This season her schedule also includes conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.
Swedish soprano Hanna Husáhr will be the soloist at the award ceremony. She studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, the Academy of Music and Drama in Gothenburg and the Finnish National Opera. She made a breakthrough in 2016 with her interpretation of Pat Nixon in the Royal Swedish Opera’s production of John Adams’ Nixon in China. Since then, she has appeared on many other stages in the Nordic region.
The award ceremony programme will also include the world premiere of the work Laus Canticum (A Song of Praise), by Swedish composer Andrea Tarrodi. This piece of music was commissioned by the Nobel Foundation to honour the 2020 and 2021 laureates, who could not participate in the festivities in Stockholm during those years since they were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Andrea Tarrodi’s music has been performed around the world, including at the Royal Albert Hall at the BBC Proms, the Berliner Philharmonie, the Wiener Musikverein and the Barbican Centre in London. In 2018, she was awarded a Grammy in the “best classical album” category for the Dahlkvist Quartet’s recordings of her music for string quartet.
The Nobel Prize banquet
During the 2022 banquet, Rufus Wainwright and Elin Rombo will enter the Blue Hall’s majestic staircase together with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra conducted by Hans Ek. The divertissement for the 2022 banquet was conceived and directed by Linus Fellbom. He has over 250 productions on opera and theatre stages around the world behind him. He directed the divertissement during the 2016 Nobel Prize banquet and was also the artistic director for the customised celebrations in 2020 and 2021.
“This year’s celebration will be quite special in many ways. Firstly, we are finally back with the award ceremony at Konserthuset and the banquet in the Blue Hall. And secondly, we have no fewer than three years of laureates on hand to honour, which will make the celebration even more festive. This will be a completely unforgettable day, not only for the laureates, but for everyone who is able to enjoy these musical fireworks,” says Linus Fellbom.
Rufus Wainwright, born in New York and raised in Montreal, has established himself as one of the greatest male vocalists, songwriters and composers of his generation. He has released 16 albums, written two operas, collaborated with many of the world’s greatest musical artists – Elton John, Joni Mitchell and Paul Simon to name just a few – and is now working on his first musical.
Swedish opera singer Elin Rombo has performed on most of Europe’s leading stages. In 2016, Elin Rombo was appointed Court Singer. She has also been awarded the Litteris et Artibus medal by H.M. the King of Sweden. In 2020, Elin Rombo performed the role of Régine Saint Laurent in the Swedish premiere of Rufus Wainwright’s opera Prima Donna at the Royal Swedish Opera.
The Swedish Chamber Orchestra was founded in 1995, with the Örebro Concert Hall as its home stage. Today it is an international leader in commissioning and performing new music and is a regular guest at Konserthuset Stockholm, Berwaldhallen in Stockholm and the Gothenburg Concert Hall. The orchestra tours both nationally and internationally.
Conductor and arranger Hans Ek has collaborated with musical artists such as Laleh, Veronica Maggio and Gregory Porter and with orchestras such as the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Copenhagen Phil and Metropole Orkest. He has created several concert productions of his own and has also written arrangements for the New York Philharmonic and Renée Fleming, as well as for the Berlin Philharmonic and Theo Croker.
The Nobel Week Dialogue
This scientific conference will take place in Stockholm on 9 December, on the theme The Future of Life. The discussions will focus on the most important challenges and opportunities that will affect the future of humanity and life on earth. A number of Nobel Prize laureates will participate. Rufus Wainwright will perform two works during the day.
“What could be more urgent than talking about our life on earth and what awaits us around the corner? This year will be especially memorable, since we will once again have Nobel Prize laureates on-site in Stockholm who will help us to maintain a high level of ambition. And to celebrate life itself, inspired by Rufus Wainwright’s magical voice and music,” says Laura Sprechmann, CEO of Nobel Prize Outreach.
See www.nobelprize.org/the-future-of-life
The Nobel Prize Concert
This year’s concert on 8 December will feature German opera star Diana Damrau. She has performed on such stages as the Vienna State Opera, the Metropolitan Opera in New York and La Scala in Milan. With this Nobel Prize Concert, she is finally making her debut at Konserthuset Stockholm and will sing Mozart arias. Mozart and Viennese classicism are of course also a speciality of Austrian conductor Manfred Honeck, who will lead the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra at the concert. In recent years, Honeck has built a close relationship with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic. He is Music Director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra but also conducts many of the world’s other most prestigious orchestras.
See www.nobelprize.org/nobel-prize-concert
Music during Nobel Week Lights
One of the artworks during the festival transform voices into light. Orchestrated entities_ Chorus at Stockholm Cathedral (Storkyrkan) was created by Tove Alderin. When visitors are singing in front of the church, their voices become a spark of light. The artist was inspired by the 1930 peace prize laureate Bishop Nathan Söderblom. On 3 December at 18:45 and again on 11 December at 16:30 the opera singer Julia West Miller will perform a set from Dona Nobis Pacem (Grant Us Peace) in front of the church. On 10 December at 16:15 Choir April will perform under the Ukrainian conductor Gleb Skvortsov.