Stefan Karpe receives International Puccini Award

Stefan Karpe, Uppsala University's Director Musices, will be receiving the International Puccini Award - a prize awarded by the Puccini Festival Foundation to mark Puccini's 150th birthday. Stefan Karpe initiated the project of producing the opera Tosca in Uppsala on 13 and 14 June.

The Puccini Festival Foundation awards the traditional Puccini Prize in conjunction with the annual Puccini Festival in Italy, but this year Giacomo Puccini's 150th birthday is being celebrated worldwide and an international section has been set up. The International Puccini Award is being allocated at twelve of the Italian cultural institutes worldwide, including Stockholm.

Stefan Karpe is receiving the prize for his commitment in promoting Puccini amongst young people and for his interpretation of Puccini's works. Other prizewinners include the director and actor Woody Allen, the tenor Placido Domingo and the pianist and conductor Antonio Pappano.

"I've loved Puccini's music since my teenage years. It was after listening to La Bohème and Tosca that I seriously began thinking about devoting myself to music. His music appealed to me like no other music had ever done. Receiving this prize is a big honour, and I feel very flattered," says Stefan Karpe, who will be receiving his prize in Stockholm on 2 June.

The prize is a statuette, which is a bronze reproduction of Paolo Trubetskoy's sculpture of Puccini.

Stefan Karpe has been Director Musices, i.e. conductor of the Royal Academic Orchestra, and Professor of Orchestral Conducting at Uppsala University since 2002. He was trained at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, after which he worked for several years at the Netherlands Opera in Amsterdam and was Artistic Director of the DalaSinfonietta. He is currently also the Artistic Director of the music festival in Scheersberg. Stefan Karpe initiated the production of Tosca that is currently being prepared at Uppsala University and that he is also conducting.

"Puccini's operas are extremely emotional - you don't need to understand any codes to take in his music. It goes straight to the heart without beating about the bush. And the actual craftsmanship is brilliant - there's not a note or a word too much," he says.

Read more about Tosca at www.tosca.uu.se

For further information contact Stefan Karpe, +46 (0)18-471 15 97, +46 (0)70-425 07 88, e mail: Stefan.Karpe@musik.uu.se.

For further information about the prize contact Alessandra Delle Fave (in English), the press officer of the Puccini Festival Foundation, Tel. +39 (0)584-35 33 04 or +39-584-35 33 22, mobile +39 39 (0)348-385 90 89 or +39 (0)329-904 52 27, e-mail: press@puccinifestival.it