Swedish lyric dramatic soprano Cornelia Beskow has been awarded the 2022 Birgit Nilsson Stipendium.

The prize, which is given to promising young singers and is awarded from a fund that was established in 1969, includes 200,000 SEK (approximately €20,000).

Beskow will receive the award on August 12 when she will perform in Birgit Nilsson’s parish church at Västra Karup, as a part of the celebrations for this year’s “Birgit Nilsson Days.”

The soprano is a winner of the 2017 Lauritz Melchior International Singing Competition, where she was awarded all four prizes.

In a statement, Beskow said, “Birgit Nilsson is not only my greatest vocal idol, she has also inspired me with her humor and her wisdom. She said for example: ‘Achieve something you have always dreamed of, and you will experience something you could never have dreamed of.’ That is how I feel when I receive her great scholarship!”

The Birgit Nilsson Stipendium has been awarded to such great singers as Nina Stemme, Anders Larsson, Karl-Magnus Fredriksson and Anna Larsson. The last recipient to receive the Stipendium personally from Birgit Nilsson was Susanne Resmark in 2002. A year after Birgit’s death the Stipendium was awarded once again, presented jointly to Michael Weinius and John Lundgren on the occasion of a memorial service held in 2006.