Ema Nikolovska

Born in Macedonia, Ema Nikolovska grew up in Toronto where she studied voice with Helga Tucker and completed an undergraduate degree in violin at The Glenn Gould School with Paul Kantor and Barry Shiffman. She received her Masters at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama (with Professors Susan McCulloch and Rudolf Piernay) where she won the Guildhall Wigmore Prize, and is currently on the Opera Course.

In 2019 Ema was selected as a BBC New Generation Artist, won the Ferrier Loveday Song Prize at the Kathleen Ferrier Awards and was selected by Young Classical Artists Trust.

Awards during her studies include the Gerald Moore Award Singers’ Prize, 2nd prize at the 2018 Helmut Deutsch International Lied Competition with Michael Sikich, winner of the Oxford Lieder Young Artists Platform with Gary Beecher, Susan Longfield Prize and First and Audience Prizes at the Maureen Lehane Vocal Awards.

Highlights over the last year include a Schubert recital with Malcolm Martineau at the Pierre Boulez Saal, her debut at Wigmore Hall with pianist Dylan Perez, singing in the final of the Guildhall Gold Medal in the Barbican Hall conducted by Richard Farnes, a recital of French song with Joseph Middleton at the Glenarm Festival of Voice, and a performance of Ligeti’s Síppal, dobbal, nádihegedüvel broadcast by Radio 3. This past summer, Ema joined Verbier Festival Academy’s Atelier Lyrique and the Creative Dialogue XI Symposium led by Kaija Saariaho, Anssi Karttunen and Daniel Belcher in Finland.

This season Ema returns to the Boulez Saal, Heidelberger-Frühling and Oxford Lieder Festivals. She performs the role of Celia in Guildhall Opera’s production of La fedeltà premiata by Haydn (conducted by Alice Farnham, directed by Stephen Barlow), and Sister Edgar in a commission by Lliam Paterson, The Angel Esmeralda (conducted by Dominic Wheeler, directed by Martin Lloyd-Evans). Concert performances will include Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 in Berlin Cathedral, a recital at Lille Opera House with Simon Lepper, and performing Mahler and Malcolm Forsyth songs with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mei-Ann Chen.

Ema has been part of Graham Johnson’s Song Guild at Guildhall, Thomas Hampson’s Lied Akademie at the Heidelberger-Frühling Music Festival, the Britten-Pears Young Artists Programme, Les Azuriales Young Artists Programme, the Music Academy of Villecroze Masterclasses with Teresa Berganza, and the Franz-Schubert-Institut.

Ema is grateful to the Sylva Gelber Grant, Canadian Centennial Scholarship Fund, Shipley Rudge Scholarship and London Syndicate, as well as The Countess of Munster Musical Trust for supporting her studies.