Ema Nikolovska
As I was leaving Koerner Hall Sunday afternoon, having attended the recital given by Macedonian Canadian mezzo-soprano Ema Nikolovska and French-Canadian pianist Charles Richard-Hamelin, I couldn’t help but felt that I had witnessed something extraordinary…I went to the concert Sunday expecting a typical recital featuring two very fine musicians. What I got was a veritable tour-de-force, a young singer putting her unique, personal stamp on a recital in such a way that few young singers would dare to try. Fearless and inimitable, Ema Nikolovska opened her artistic world and invited everyone in.
Ludwig van Toronto, Joseph So
Nikolovska’s voice is focused, rich, and velvety. Though she is at the beginning of her career, her sound is mature and her instinct for interpretation highly developed…This was first-rate Debussy, filled with color and nuance, great sensuality when required, insight and seriousness of purpose throughout…a comedienne prepared to do anything and everything for a joke. She brought Lucille Ball and Dame Patricia Routledge to mind, and the audience responded with titters, giggles, and, finally, belly laughs…The poise, shining pride, and sense of identity burnished all we had heard earlier, defining a young mezzo-soprano with a great deal to say and the technique to say it with passion and eloquence… a remarkable tour-de-force recital and well worth the wait.
Classical Voice America, David Gordon Duke
The future of this privileged voice seems to have no limits.
Ópera Actual, Antoni Colomer
Taking over from Marianne Crebassa in Aix, Ema Nikolovska gave an outstanding performance as Woman, caressing Benjamin’s sinuous writing with an unbearable tenderness.
Backtrack, Stephen Pritchard
Ema Nikolovska sings with poise and impact throughout. Simply dressed in a frock and trench-coat, she is urgent but never over-emotional, only rising to fury in a central aria in which she expresses her disillusionment that her quest is futile and condemned to fail. Instead, she uses nuanced vocal colours and beautiful phrasing to delineate her changing moods.
Claire Seymour, Opera Today
Her exceptional communication and dramatic skill…was a tour de force of quite terrifying skill.
musicomh.com, Melani Eskenazi
…a true rising star.
Classic FM
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Discography
Born in North Macedonia, Mezzo-Soprano Ema Nikolovska grew up in Toronto where she studied violin at The Glenn Gould School, before studying voice with Helga Tucker. She received her Master’s in Voice at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, where she also completed the Opera Course. Ema Nikolovska was a BBC New Generation Artist from 2019-2022. In 2019 she won first prize at the International Vocal Competition in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, the Ferrier Loveday Song Prize (Kathleen Ferrier Awards), and was a prize-winner at the Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT) International Auditions. In 2022 she became a recipient of the prestigious Borletti-Buitoni Trust award.
In the 2024-25 season, Ema Nikolovska revives the lead role of the Woman in Sir George Benjamin’s Picture a Day Like This at Opéra du Rhin, Strasbourg, having made her debut in the role at the Royal Opera House’s Linbury Theatre last season. Following her tremendous role debut as Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in 2023, an alumnus of their Opera Studio, she returns to Berlin this season as Stéphano in Roméo et Juliette. Past performances at the theatre have included Lucile in Henze’s Cubana, Fatima Mansur in Christian Jost’s Die Arabische Nacht, Second Lady in Die Zauberflöte, Giovanna in Rigoletto, and Diane in Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie conducted by Sir Simon Rattle.
Elsewhere last season she made her debut at the Canadian Opera Company as the Fox in Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen in Jamie Manton’s imaginative production led by Music Director Johannes Debus, and a prestigious concert schedule included Stravinsky’s Les Noces with Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal and Kent Nagano, Vivier’s Wo du Bist du Licht with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Barbara Hannigan, Scriabin’s First Symphony with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and Fabio Luisi, Mozart’s Mass in c minor with the Munich Philharmonic, and Mendelssohn’s Elijah on tour with Pygmalion both with Raphaël Pichon.
Previous concerts include Mozart’s Coronation Mass with Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg and Roberto González-Monjas at the Salzburg Festival, Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri and Mozart’s Requiem with the Staatskapelle Berlin and Marc Minkowski, Jaquet de la Guerre’s Céphale et Procris on tour with Reinoud van Mechelen and Nocte Temporis in Versailles, Namur and Brussels, Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Münchner Rundfunkorchester and Howard Arman, Mozart’s Requiem with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Adrian Partington, Stravinsky’s Pulcinella with Musikkollegium Winterthur and Barbara Hannigan, and Ravel’s Chansons madécasses with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Sir George Benjamin.
An internationally celebrated recitalist, collaborative partners of the last season included Martha Argerich, Sir András Shiff, Howard Watkins, Charles-Richard Hamelin, and guitarist, Sean Shibe in concerts throughout Europe and a comprehensive recital tour of North America, including her solo recital debuts at Carnegie Hall and at Koerner Hall at the Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto. At Wigmore Hall, where she is a favorite, Ema Nikolovska was Artist-in-residence, performing five diverse programs across the season. Elsewhere, she appeared in recital at the Pierre Boulez Saal, Konzerthaus Berlin, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, and at the Schubertíada Vilabertran, Verbier, Heidelberg, Gstaad, Aldeburgh, and Leeds Lieder festivals appearing with Malcolm Martineau, Wolfram Rieger, Graham Johnson, Joseph Middleton, and Kunal Lahiry amongst others.
Mendelssohn: Weh ihnen, dass sie von mir weichen!
In Recital: Toronto Summer Music
Schubert: An die Laute, D.905, Op. 81
Schubert: Abends unter der Linde, D. 235
Schubert: Der Sänger am Felsen, D.482; An den Mond, D. 193
Wolf: Das Kohlerweib ist trunken
Contact
General Management
Sue Spence, Askonas Holt Limited
New Wing, Somerset House, Strand
London WC2R 1LA UK
Tel: ++44 20 7400 1700
Email: [email protected]
Management (The Americas)
Bill Palant, Étude Arts
Ansonia Station, Post Office Box 230132
New York, New York 10023
Tel: 929.777.0775
Email: [email protected]
Management (Concert/Recital: Austria and Germany)
Johanna Herbst Artist Management
Tel: +49 176 70164402
Email: [email protected]