Ema Nikolovska
The title role, however, is a challenge that Ema Nikolovska carried with admirable intensity. Neuwirth writes the part as a vocal metamorphosis: the male Orlando initially moves in darker registers; only with the gender transformation do coloratura and bright high notes open up. Later follow spoken-song passages, amplified passages, and almost aggressive rock songs. Nikolovska mastered all of this with technical mastery and remarkable stage presence.
Opera Wire, Zenaida des Aubris
Ema Nikolovska’s Orlando made a positive impression thanks to her warm mezzo, finely controlled vibrato and a chameleonic sense of different music styles. Her stage presence, veered towards the youthful and idealistic of a typical mezzo role, was also convincing.
Bachtrack, Elena Luporini
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 & Drama in London, where she also completed the Opera Course. Ema 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 2025-26 season, she sings Boulez’ Le Marteau sans maître under Jean Deroyer and Ensemble intercontemporain at Gulbenkian Fundaçāo, returns to Staatsoper Berlin with Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann under Bertrand de Billy and Staatskapelle Berlin, Wigmore Hall recital with Hikaru Kanki to include Strauss, Rachmaninoff and Alma Mahler. In opera, Ema makes her house debuts as Cherubino Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro under Pierre Dumoussaud with Opernhaus Zürich and later title role Neuwirth’s Orlando under Johannes Kalitzke at Komische Berlin.
Last season Ema revived the lead role of the Woman in George Benjamin’s Picture a Day Like This at Opéra du Rhin in Strasbourg, having made her debut in the role at the Royal Opera House’s Linbury Theatre the season prior. Following her tremendous role debut as Octavian Der Rosenkavalier at the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin in 2023, an alumnus of their Opera Studio, she returned for Stéfano Roméo et Juliette. Previous roles at the theatre include Lucile in Henze’s Cubana, Christian Jost’s Die Arabische Nacht, Second Lady Die Zauberflöte, Schäferin Jenůfa, Giovanna Rigoletto, and Diane in Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie under Sir Simon Rattle.
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 Munchener 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.
An internationally celebrated recitalist, her partners have included Martha Argerich, Andras Shiff, Charles Richard-Hamelin, and guitarist, Sean Shibe in concerts throughout Europe and her debut recital tour of North America, including her debut at Carnegie’s Weill Hall. At Wigmore Hall, where she is a regular favourite, she was an artist in residence, performing five diverse programmes across the season. Elsewhere, Ema has performed at the Pierre Boulez Saal, Konzerthaus Berlin, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, and at the Schubertíada Vilabertran, Verbier, Heidelberg, Gstaad, Aldeburgh, Leeds Lieder and Toronto Summer Music Festivals, collaborating with Malcolm Martineau, Wolfram Rieger, Andras Schiff, Graham Johnson, Joseph Middleton, Kunal Lahiry amongst others.
Schubert: Erlkönig, D. 328 (excerpt)
Copland: “The world feels Dusty” & Prokofiev: No. 5 from Five Songs Without Words, Op. 35
Schubert: “Der Unglückliche” D. 713 & “Nacht und Träume” D. 827
Neuwirth: Orlando
Janáček: The Cunning Little Vixen, Act 2 (excerpt)
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]