Borletti-Buitoni Trust
BBT Artists
Rewarding Musical Excellence
Macedonian-Canadian Ema Nikolovska grew up in Toronto where she studied violin at the Glenn Gould School. She received her Masters in Voice from London’s Guildhall School as well as completing the Opera Course.
As a member of Berlin Staatsoper Unter den Linden’s International Opera Studio from Autumn 2020, Ema’s highlights have included Christian Jost’s Die Arabische Nacht, along with Second Lady Die Zauberflöte, Schäferin Jenůfa, Giovanna Rigoletto and Diane in Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie. In the 22/23 season she returns to sing Lucile in Henze’s Cubana and her role debut as Octavian Der Rosenkavalier.
In concert, recent highlights include Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri (Staatskapelle Berlin/Marc Minkowski), Mendelssohn’s Elias (Munchener Rundfunkorchester/Howard Arman), Mozart’s Requiem (Royal Philharmonic/Adrian Partington), and Stravinsky’s Pulcinella (Musikkollegium Winterthur/Barbara Hannigan). Future engagements include Mozart’s Requiem (Staatskapelle Berlin/Minkowski) and and Jaquet de la Guerre’s Céphale et Procris on tour with Reinoud van Mechelen and Nocte Temporis in Versailles, Namur and Brussels.
A prolific recitalist, in the last year Ema performed at the Pierre Boulez Saal, and Konzerthaus Berlin, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, London’s Wigmore Hall, the Schubertíada Vilabertran, Leeds Lieder, Aldeburgh, Verbier, Gstaad, Toronto Summer Music Festivals and Opera Holland Park Song Series, collaborating with Malcolm Martineau, Wolfram Rieger, Andras Schiff, Graham Johnson, and Joseph Middleton, among many others.
In addition to here 2022 BBT Award, she has been a BBC New Generation Artist (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.
She participated in BBT’s 20th-anniversary celebrations at London’s Wigmore Hall, June 2023.
I am incredibly thankful for my BBT Award, which encourages me to dream big, to examine my values and creative impulses anew; this type of imaginative space can be rare to experience, especially when one is in the early stages of a career.
Photographs by Simon Weir