Macedonian-Canadian mezzo-soprano Ema Nikolovska earned her Master’s degree from Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where she also completed the Opera Course. She was a BBC New Generation Artist from 2019 to 2022 and, in 2022, received the prestigious Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award.
Already a celebrated recitalist, she has performed alongside Martha Argerich, Sir András Schiff, Kunal Lahiry, Charles Richard-Hamelin, and Sean Shibe. She made her debut at Carnegie Hall in the 2024/25 season. Her 2025/26 recitals included appearances in Paris, Berlin, Klosters, Hamburg, Luxembourg, and Amsterdam.
In the 2024/25 season, Ema performed Mozart arias with the NHK Symphony Orchestra under Petr Popelka in Tokyo and La Damoiselle élue under George Benjamin with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in Paris. In Berlin, she presented her song recital programme Orlando together with Sean Shibe at the Pierre Boulez Saal, and in Klosters she gave a recital alongside Sir András Schiff.
In 2025/26, Ema Nikolovska will make her role debut as Nicklausse in Les contes d’Hoffmann at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden. She will also return to London’s Wigmore Hall, give several song recitals—including in Nuremberg—and make her debut with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (RSB).
With Martha Argerich and Sir András Schiff: song art at the highest level
An alumna of the International Opera Studio at the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, she made her role debut as Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier in 2023. She will return in the 2024/25 season to sing Stefano in Roméo et Juliette.
In the 2023/24 season, she made both her house and role debut as the Fox in Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen at the Canadian Opera Company.
She also appeared at the Royal Opera House’s Linbury Theatre, singing the lead role in George Benjamin’s Picture a Day Like This, a role she will reprise this season at Opéra du Rhin in Strasbourg.
Johanna Herbst Artist Management has taken over Ema Nikolovska’s concert representation in German-speaking countries, please direct all other inquiries to Askonas Holt.
