The 2021 Birgit Nilsson Stipendium is awarded to 27 year old Swedish Soprano, Johanna Wallroth who receives 200.000 SEK (equivalent to $24,000) on 13 August when she will perform in recital as a part of the celebrations for this year’s Birgit Nilsson Days.

Johanna Wallroth was thrust into the limelight in 2019 when she took First Prize in the prestigious Mirjam Helin International Singing Competition with her ​“immediately engaging, intelligent and detailed performance” (Bachtrack). She subsequently joined the Opernstudio of the Wiener Staatsoper from the start of the 2020/21 season where she has perfomed Giannetta (L’elisir d’amore), A Voice from Heaven (Don Carlos) and Barbarina (Le Nozze di Figaro) in a livestream performance under Philippe Jordan. Johanna is currently in rehearsal for a new production of Monteverdi’s La Coronazione di Poppea, scheduled to premiere on 22 May. 

In addition to her upcoming commitments to the Wiener Staatsoper for the 2021/22 season (still to be announced) Johanna will perform this summer at a gala concert with the Drottingholm Baroque Orchestra, with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Daniel Harding and makes her debut with Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France under Barbara Hannigan.

The Birgit Nilsson Stipendium was created in 1969 in memory of Birgit’s first teacher, Ragnar Blennow, who played an influential role in her early years as an aspiring singer. The founding capital was set aside from the revenue of a performance of Tosca at the Malmö City Theatre in which she sang the title role. Previous recipients have included several Swedish singers who have gone on to have important international careers, including Gitta-Maria Sjöberg, Hillevi Martinpelto, Karl-Magnus Fredriksson, Anna Larsson, Nina Stemme and Malin Byström.