November 30, 2007

The 2007 Festival in

Soon this year’s Nobel Laureates and Economics Laureates will gather in Stockholm for an eventful week, culminating in the Nobel Day on December 10. The Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded on the same day in Oslo.

The Nobel Day will begin with the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony at the Stockholm Concert Hall. The music will be performed by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of conductor Kjell Ingebretsen. This year’s soloist is the young soprano Ida Falk Winland, finalist in the prestigious singing contest BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2007. She will perform works by Igor Stravinsky and Georg Friedrich Händel.

The Concert Hall will be decorated with 13,000 flowers in such warm colours as cerise, red, apricot and champagne. The flowers, this year many of them roses and orchids, have been donated by Provincia Di Imperia, Riviera Dei Fiori, Sanremo and arranged by Helén Magnusson of Hässelby Blommor, Stockholm.

After the traditional Nobel Prize Award Ceremony it will be time for the Nobel at the Stockholm City Hall. The menu will be revealed only when all guests have been seated at their tables at 7.00 p.m. In charge of composing this year’s menu is the Swedish Culinary Team, led by Krister Dahl, and Magnus Johansson of the Stockholm dessert café Xoko. In charge of presenting the Banquet is the Stadshuskällaren (City Hall Cellar) restaurant − part of Profilrestauranger − through its General Manager, Ulf Östenius, and its de Cuisine, Gunnar Eriksson.

This year’s divertissement at the Banquet will be performed by Sweden’s largest and, founded in 1773, oldest ballet company, the Royal Swedish Ballet of the Royal Swedish Opera. Artistic director is Madeleine Onne.

The floral arrangements in the City Hall will be connected with the divertissement and literally occupy the Table of Honour in the Blue Hall. For the eighth consecutive year, Gunnar Kaj is in charge of arranging the approximately 10,000 flowers: mostly roses, carnations, lilies and calla lilies.

One Laureate from each Prize category will hold a brief speech of thanks when coffee has been served. Then the guests will rise from the table and it will be time for dancing upstairs in the Golden Hall to the sounds of the Ambassadeur orchestra.

Otherwise the Nobel Week programme will be extensive, beginning as early as December 6 with a visit to the Nobel Museum for the 2007 Laureates and their families. This will be followed by press conferences and Nobel Lectures as well as receptions and dinners at the respective prize-awarding institutions.

On December 8, for the third consecutive year, Nobel Media AB in partnership with the Stockholm Concert Hall is organising the Nobel Prize Concert. This year’s soloist is pianist Lang Lang and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra will be conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy.

The official Nobel Week programme will conclude on December 12 with visits by the Laureates to the . After that, many of the Laureates will visit universities around Sweden.

For further information on the Nobel Week programme as well as the 2007 Nobel Laureates and Economics Laureates, visit the official website of the Nobel Foundation, http://nobelprize.org. The Nobel Lectures and the respective Nobel Prize Award Ceremonies in Stockholm and Oslo will be webcast live on this site.

Contact: Annika Pontikis, Public Relations Manager, The Nobel Foundation E-mail: [email protected], tel: +46 8 663 14 70, fax: +46 8 660 38 47