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
Downloads
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 & 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 2022-23 season opera appearances included her role debut as Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier at the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin. An alumnus of their International Opera Studio, her roles in Berlin have included Lucile in Henze’s Cubana, Fatima Mansur in Christian Jost’s Die Arabische Nacht, Second Lady in Die Zauberflöte, Schäferin in Jenůfa, Giovanna in Rigoletto, and Diane in Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie conducted by Sir Simon Rattle. On the concert platform, recent highlights 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 Münchener 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 Madecasses with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Sir George Benjamin.
This season she makes her debut with the Canadian Opera Company as the Fox in Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen, and sings the Woman in Sir George Benjamin’s new opera, Picture a Day Like This, at The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden’s Linbury Theatre. Concert highlights of the 2023-24 season include 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, as well as Mendelssohn’s Elijah on tour with Pygmalion and Mozart’s Mass in c minor with the Münchner Philharmoniker both led by Raphaël Pichon.
A celebrated recitalist, this season Ema Nikolovska embarks on a recital tour of North America with performances on the stages of the continent’s most eminent performing arts institutions, including a debut at Carnegie Hall. Elsewhere, her dynamic international recital schedule brings her to the Pierre Boulez Saal, Konzerthaus Berlin, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, London’s Wigmore Hall, Schubertíada Vilabertran, Verbier, Gstaad, Aldeburgh, and Leeds Lieder collaborating with Howard Watkins, Charles Richard-Hamelin, Malcolm Martineau, Wolfram Rieger, Sir András Schiff, Graham Johnson, and Joseph Middleton, among 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
15 Fetter Lane
London EC4A 1BW UK
Tel: ++44 20 7400 1700
Email: sue.spence@askonasholt.com
Management (The Americas)
Bill Palant, Étude Arts
Ansonia Station, Post Office Box 230132
New York, New York 10023
Tel: 929.777.0775
Email: bp@etudearts.com
Management (Concert/Recital: Austria and Germany)
Johanna Herbst Artist Management
Tel: +49 176 70164402
Email: johanna.herbst@herbst-artists.com