Borletti-Buitoni Trust
BBT Artists
Rewarding Musical Excellence
Ema Nikolovska mezzo-soprano
Sean Shibe guitar
Wigmore Hall, 14 May 2024
Bath Festival, 23 May 2024
… if I say that the experience felt like being awake in a vivid dream, I do so as a compliment. … Some might call this eclecticism with a faint whiff of eccentricity. Others, me included, would salute the sheer imagination it takes to pull off a programme such as this… it had a wonderful continuity… their shared artistic purpose and daring made it gel, along with the melding of Sean Shibe’s endlessly nuanced playing and the expressive beauty of Nikolovska’s voice.
I adored Cassandra Miller’s Dream Memorandum (It Reminded Me of the Truth), which riffed on the idea of biography. Over gentle guitar musings and recorded vocal harmonies Nikolovska narrated the voice notes she’d sent to Miller during the creative process. It could have been self-indulgent, but it entered a space in which time seemed to float, giving us a moving glimpse of the performer’s inner life.
Rebecca Franks, The Times, 24 May 2024