The Nobel Prize Award Ceremony
From the outset, Konserthuset was intended to serve as the venue for the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony – and it has done so since 1926.
At the renowned Nobel Prize Award Ceremony, the stage setting in the Main Hall of Konserthuset is transformed with specially designed textiles and floral decorations featuring flowers from Sanremo. During the presentation of the awards, The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra performs from a specially constructed platform in the choir gallery beneath the organ.
The stage is covered with the distinctive blue Nobel carpet, with seating for members of the academies, the Nobel Laureates and the Royal Family. A statue of Alfred Nobel occupies a central place in the staging, and the concert hall organ is adorned with a cockade in the Swedish – and Norwegian – colours.
At the time of Alfred Nobel’s death, Sweden and Norway were in union (a union dissolved in 1905), which explains why the Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo. The Nobel Prize is presented each year on 10 December in the fields of Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature and Peace.
In his will, the founder and inventor Alfred Nobel (1833–1896) bequeathed his considerable fortune to a fund, the interest of which was to be awarded as prizes to “those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind.”
The Nobel Prize was first awarded in 1901 at the Royal Swedish Academy of Music, and since 1926 the ceremony has, with only a few exceptions, been held at Konserthuset. The exceptions include the years of the Second World War, when no prizes were awarded between 1939 and 1944, and most recently during the pandemic in 2020–21, when the ceremony could not be conducted in the usual manner at Konserthuset.
Today, the Nobel Prize is arguably the most prestigious distinction a scientist, writer or statesperson can receive. At the ceremony in Konserthuset, the Laureates, dressed in white tie, step forward before the King to receive their awards as the orchestra’s trumpeters sound a fanfare. The Nobel Prize Award Ceremony is broadcast on television channels around the world, reflecting the immense international interest in the Nobel Prize.