Festival D’Aix-En-Provence wins Birgit Nilsson Prize

The Festival d’Aix-en-Provence has been awarded the 2025 Birgit Nilsson Prize for outstanding artistic achievements. The French opera festival is the first festival in the prize’s 16-year history to receive the $1 million prize.

The announcement comes as preparation is underway for the festival’s 77th edition this summer, (4 to 21 July) and follows the recent announcement of the death of festival general director Pierre Audi (pictured below ©Sarah Wong) on 3 May, having held the role since 2019.

Audi had prepared a statement in response to the award ahead of his death on 3 May. He wrote: ‘No words are warm enough to express our deepest thanks at receiving this wonderful honour, which comes at a momentous turning point in our 77-year history. The Birgit Nilsson Prize will help the Festival cross these challenging times, which have threatened its artistic course. The Prize will enable the Festival to continue its determined policy to create new works and stay an inspiring birthplace for new operas, as well as nurture the special synergy between innovation and quality that has been its trademark for many years.’

In awarding the prize, the Birgit Nilsson Stiftelse (Foundation) board gave special recognition to the 2021 premiere of Innocence, an opera by the late Kaija Saariaho focused around a school shooting which premiered at the 2021 Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. A co-commission with the Dutch National Opera, Finnish National Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden and San Francisco Opera, Innocence has since been staged multiple times, most recently at the Semperoper Dresden and Adelaide Festival. The work receives its New York Metropolitan Opera premiere in April 2026.

©Jean Louis Fernandez

Audi added: ‘The opera Innocence by the great Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho is a prime example of a work that has taken the world by storm. Nurtured and produced by the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, this important work will have been seen across fifteen stages around the world in the space of a few years. This project stands as a living example of the contribution the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence has been able to make to the course of opera as a living art form we firmly believe is there to stay and evolve with our times.’

Birgit Nilsson Stiftelse president Susanne Rydén said: ‘It was here in Stockholm that Birgit Nilsson gave her very first performance as Elektra in 1965 at the Royal Swedish Opera. Sixty years later her legacy continues to thrive, giving important recognition and support to the talents of both today and tomorrow. As we prepare to celebrate the achievements of the Festival d’Aix- en-Provence at this year’s Prize Ceremony, we also give thanks to Pierre Audi for his extraordinary contribution to the world of opera.’

The Festival d’Aix-en-Provence team and will receive the prize from His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustaf during a ceremony held at Konserthuset Stockholm in October.