The focus is now on the discoveries and contributions this year’s Nobel Laureates have made for the greatest benefit of humankind. During the next week or so, the Laureates will participate in a number of public events. Singer-songwriter Anna von Hausswolff will be among the performers at the Nobel Banquet’s Divertissement, featuring new music by composer Mikael Karlsson and choreography by Nicolas Le Riche, Director of the Royal Swedish Ballet. This year chef Tom Sjöstedt will again be in charge of the Banquet menu together with pastry chef Daniel Roos.
The Nobel Laureates will begin their stay in Stockholm on December 6 with a visit to the Nobel Museum in the Old Town, where they will personally autograph chairs at Bistro Nobel and donate a selected artefact to the Museum’s collection. This will be followed by their Nobel Lectures hosted by the prize-awarding institutions: the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet.
At the Nobel Prize Concert on December 8, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra will be led by American conductor Karina Canellakis. The opening piece will be Ann-Sofi Söderqvist’s Movements, followed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto featuring star violinist Lisa Batiashvili as the soloist. The final work performed will be Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4.
This year’s Nobel Week Dialogue – a full-day seminar about a major issue of our age – will take place on December 9. Seven former Nobel Laureates in Physics, Chemistry and Physiology or Medicine will engage in discussions with some of the world’s foremost experts on the theme Water Matters. Among other speakers will be Maude Barlow, who was a leader in the campaign to persuade the United Nations to declare water a human right. World-famous performance artist Marina Abramović will deliver a newly created performance lecture.
This year the Nobel Foundation is also marking the 70th anniversary of the UN’s ratification of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which coincides with this year’s Nobel Prize Award Ceremony on December 10. Included is a lecture that day at the Nobel Museum by Gustaf Lind − Ambassador and Head of the Department for International Law, Human Rights and Treaty Law at the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs − on the theme of Human Rights in a Changing Time. Meanwhile the Museum is showing the exhibition A Right to Freedom – Martin Luther King, Jr., which explores Dr King’s life and contributions to the civil rights movement. Special tours for the media will take place on December 5 and December 8.
At the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony on December 10, the 2018 Laureates will be presented by members of the respective Nobel Committees, which select the Laureates. The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, under the baton of conductor Dalia Stasevska, will provide musical interludes during the ceremony. The soloist is Christina Nilsson, soprano. For the 18th consecutive year Helén Magnusson, chief florist at Hässelby Blommor, has designed the floral decorations for the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony.
At the subsequent Nobel Banquet, Anna von Hausswolff will be among those performing newly composed music by Mikael Karlsson with choreography by Nicolas Le Riche. The Royal Swedish Orchestra, the Royal Swedish Opera Chorus and the Royal Swedish Ballet will perform. This year’s Divertissement is based on personal and altruistic courage, linked among other things to the 2018 Peace Prize by a call to celebrate and honour women. Producers are Marie-Louise Sid-Sylwander, Ingmar Bergman jr and Tove Asplind.
Chef Tom Sjöstedt, who operates the Lilla Ego restaurant in Stockholm together with Daniel Räms, is responsible for the first course and main course for the second consecutive year. In this year’s Banquet menu he lets vegetables play an important role, and two different root vegetables are key ingredients in the main course. At his side in the kitchen at Stockholm City Hall will be Daniel Roos, of K-märkt Restaurant, who is in charge of the Banquet dessert for the fifth consecutive year. The menu has been developed in close collaboration with the Nobel Foundation’s gastronomic advisors: Fredrik Eriksson of Långbro Värdshus and Restaurant Nationalmuseum; Gert Klötzke, Professor of Gastronomy at Umeå University; and Gunnar Eriksson, Chef de Cuisine at Stadshusrestauranger (City Hall Restaurants).
Per Benjamin will be in charge of the floral decorations at the City Hall for the fourth consecutive year. The theme of the decorations will also be “Courage”.
During their stay in Sweden, the Laureates will visit a number of schools, the Riksdag (Parliament), universities and colleges. They will participate in various seminars, deliver lectures and gather for the videotaping of the round-table TV discussion Nobel Minds, a co-production of Swedish Television and BBC World News.
More information
For information about the Laureates, please see the official website of the Nobel Prize, Nobelprize.org. For more information about the Nobel Week programme and contacts, please see the document entitled Detailed information for media – 2018 Nobel Week
Follow the Nobel Week on Nobelprize.org
All Nobel Lectures will be webcast live on Nobelprize.org and will later be available there in video-on-demand format.
The Nobel Prize Award Ceremonies in Oslo and Stockholm will be webcast live on Nobelprize.org, at 13.00 and 16.30 CET, respectively, on DECEMBER 10.
Publication Times (Central European Time, CET)
Seating chart for the Table of Honour at the Nobel Banquet:
DECEMBER 9, 10.00
Presentation speeches at the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony:
DECEMBER 10, 16.30
The menu for the Nobel Banquet: DECEMBER 10, 19.00
Press photos of the Banquet dishes: DECEMBER 10, 21.30
The Laureates’ speeches of thanks: DECEMBER 10, ABOUT 23.00
For further information about the Nobel Week programmes and services for the media, please visit www.nobelprize.org/press/
Follow The Nobel Prize
Follow the Nobel Prize on www.nobelprize.org, Twitter: @Nobelprize, Facebook: facebook.com/Nobelprize, YouTube: www.youtube.com/nobelprize and Instagram: www.instagram.com/nobelprize_org