Ema Nikolovska, mezzo-soprano, was born in Skopje, raised in Toronto, and lives in Berlin.

She is a recipient of the prestigious Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award, was a BBC New Generation Artist, a YCAT Artist, Wigmore Hall Artist in Residence, and Elbphilharmonie ‘Fast Lane’ Artist, and winner of the International Vocal Competition ‘s-Hertogenbosch. She trained as a violinist at The Glenn Gould School of The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, and as a singer at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama as well as the Internationale Opernstudio of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin.

Ema’s creative practice embraces standard and obscure repertoire from all centuries, in opera and concert, with the philosophy that all centuries of writing exist within one another and are interdependent. For example, one week she may be singing Olga Neuwirth, Kaija Saariaho or Pierre Boulez, another Mozart, Schubert or Strauss, another week Rameau or Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, and yet another, working on a piece that was written a day ago. Additionally, Ema’s chamber music work (performance, arrangement, commissioning, research, curation) informs her opera practice – both forms are integral to her life as a vocalist.

Operatic highlights of the 2025/26 season include her role debut Nicklausse/La Muse in Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann (Staatsoper Berlin, Lydia Steier/Bertrand de Billy), role and house debut Cherubino in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro (Oper Zürich, Jan Philip Gloger/Pierre Dumussaud) and role and house debut Orlando in Olga Neuwirth’s Orlando (Komische Oper Berlin, Ewelina Marciniak/Johannes Kalitzke – German premiere). In recent seasons, Ema also debuted Octavian Der Rosenkavalier (Staatsoper Berlin, André Heller/Alexander Soddy), the lead role of The Woman in George Benjamin’s Picture A Day Like This (London Royal Ballet and Opera, and Opéra National du Rhin), and a concert version (also award-winning recording) – Aurore in Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre’s Céphale et Procris (a nocte temporis, Reinoud van Mechelen).

Concert highlights in 25/26 are Mahler Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Sir András Schiff, Capella Andrea Barca), Mahler Symphony No.2 (Alexander Shelley, National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa), WagnerWesendonck Lieder (with chamber musicians of Radio Symphonieorchester Berlin), and a recital at Wigmore Hall, curated with pianist Hikaru Kanki, titled ‘Ki i te’ – an exploration of Japanese composers and sonic connections between European, America and Japan in the 20th and 21st centuries.

In recent years, particular creative highlights have included performing regular recitals in venues such as Wigmore Hall, Pierre Boulez Saal, Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, Carnegie Hall, Koerner Hall, CalPerformances Berkeley, with artists such as Sir András Schiff, Martha Argerich, Kunal Lahiry, Charles Richard-Hamelin, Sean Shibe, Graham Johnson, Howard Watkins, Hikaru Kanki, Malcolm Martineau, Wolfram Rieger, Gerold Huber, Joseph Middleton.

On the concert platform to great acclaim, Ema performed Mozart concert arias in Tokyo’s Suntory Hall in February 2025 with Petr Popelka conducting the NHK Symphony, and also performed Boulez’s Le Marteau sans maître with Ensemble Intercontemporain at Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian in Lisbon for Boulez’s centenary celebrations in September 2025.