Ema Nikolovska
Mezzo-soprano Ema Nikolovska was born in Skopje (North Macedonia), raised in Toronto, and lives in Berlin. She is a recipient of the Borletti–
Buitoni Trust Award and has held residencies and honors including being named a BBC New Generation Artist, YCAT Artist, Wigmore Hall Artist in Residence, and Elbphilharmonie “Fast Lane” Artist, as well as winning the International Vocal Competition ‘s-Hertogenbosch. She trained as a violinist at the Glenn Gould School in Toronto and as a singer at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (London) and the Internationale Opernstudio of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden (Berlin), with mentors including Helga Tucker, Edith Wiens, Brigitte Fassbaender, Barbara Hannigan, and Thomas Hampson.
Operatic highlights of the 2026–27 season include the Komponist in Ariadne auf Naxos (Canadian Opera Company), Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro (Staatsoper Berlin), and Phèdre in Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie (concert performance at Paris’ Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Les Musiciens du Louvre). Recent roles include Orlando in Olga Neuwirth’s Orlando (Komische Oper Berlin), Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier (Staatsoper Berlin), and The Woman in George Benjamin’s Picture A Day Like This (Royal Ballet and Opera; Opéra National du Rhin).
On the concert platform this season, she is a soloist in J.S. Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchester for their Asia tour and Leipzig concerts celebrating the 300th anniversary of the work; and sings Mahler’s Rückert Lieder with the Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Oviedo and Britten’s Phaedra with Ensemble O/Modernt, and gives recitals at Wigmore Hall with Jonathan Biss and Sir András Schiff.
She has performed at major international venues, among them Carnegie Hall, Suntory Hall, Philharmonie de Paris, Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, and Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and for festivals such as Verbier, Salzburg, and Aix-en-Provence. Along with Sean Shibe, musical partners in recent years include Martha Argerich, Charles Richard-Hamelin, Kunal Lahiry, Malcolm Martineau, Howard Watkins, Julius Drake, Wolfram Rieger, and Ensemble Intercontemporain (for a special centenary anniversary performance of Boulez’s Le Marteau sans maître).