Carnegie Hall

Macedonian Canadian mezzo-soprano Ema Nikolovska grew up in Toronto, where she studied voice with Helga Tucker and received her bachelor’s degree and performance diploma in violin at The Glenn Gould School with Paul Kantor and Barry Shiffman. She completed the opera course and received a master’s degree in voice at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London. She was a BBC New Generation Artist from 2019 to 2022, and in 2019, she won first prize in the International Vocal Competition ’s-Hertogenbosch, received the Ferrier Loveday Song Prize at the Kathleen Ferrier Awards, and was a winner at the Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT) International Auditions. In 2022, she was awarded the prestigious Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award, and in 2019 and 2020, she received Sylva Gelber awards.

From 2020 to 2022, Ms. Nikolovska was a member of the International Opera Studio at Berlin’s Staatsoper Unter den Linden. Recent role debuts include Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier at Staatsoper Unter den Linden; the lead role (The Woman) in Sir George Benjamin’s new opera Picture a day like this at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; and the Fox in Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen at the Canadian Opera Company.

Recent and upcoming concert appearances include Felix Mendelssohn’s Elijah with Ensemble Pygmalion at Konzerthaus Vienna, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and Philharmonie de Paris; Claude Vivier’s Wo bist du Licht! at Maison de la Radio et de la Musique conducted by Barbara Hannigan with Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France; Mozart’s C-Minor Mass at the Isarphilharmonie with the Munich Philharmonic conducted by Raphaël Pichon; and Stravinsky’s Les noces with Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and Kent Nagano.

Recital highlights include regular appearances at London’s Wigmore Hall (where she is a 2023–2024 artist in residence) and BBC Proms, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Berlin’s Pierre Boulez Saal and Konzerthaus, Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts, Verbier Festival, Gstaad Menuhin Festival, Leeds Lieder, and Toronto Summer Music. Recital partners include pianists András Schiff, Malcolm Martineau, Wolfram Rieger, Gerold Huber, Graham Johnson, Joseph Middleton, and Kunal Lahiry, as well as guitarist Sean Shibe. In March and April 2024, she gives her first recital tour of Canada and the United States.

A pillar of Ms. Nikolovska’s creative practice is concert design and curation. Within this realm, she facilitates and premieres new works such as Apperceptive Algorithms by Nahre Sol, a song cycle commissioned by the BBC; The Lake by Errollyn Wallen; and two world premieres to be composed by Sasha Scott and Cassandra Miller based on Virginia Woolf’s novel Orlando: A Biography, commissioned by the Borletti-Buitoni Trust.

American pianist Howard Watkins is a frequent associate of some of the world’s leading musicians on the concert stage and as an assistant conductor at the Metropolitan Opera. His appearances throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East have included collaborations with Renée Fleming, Joyce DiDonato, Lawrence Brownlee, Diana Damrau, Thomas Hampson, Kathleen Battle, Grace Bumbry, Mariusz Kwiecień, Anna Netrebko, and Matthew Polenzani at such venues as The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Spivey Hall, Kennedy Center, Supreme Court of the United States, Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, and Bolshoi Theater. He has accompanied master classes of legendary artists Renata Scotto, Frederica von Stade, Régine Crespin, Birgit Nilsson, Sherrill Milnes, and George Shirley.

His current and former faculty affiliations include The Juilliard School, Bard College Conservatory of Music, Merola Opera Program, Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Program, Yale School of Music (as a Visiting Presidential Fellow), Tanglewood Music Center, Aspen Music Festival and School, Mannes School of Music, North Carolina School of the Arts, International Vocal Arts Institute (in Israel, Japan, and China), Brancaleoni International Music Festival, Tokyo International Vocal Arts Academy (as a founding member), and VOICExperience (in Orlando, Tampa, and Savannah). A former guest master coach for the Cafritz Young Artists of Washington Opera and the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Mr. Watkins has worked on the staff of the Palm Beach Opera, Washington National Opera, and Los Angeles Opera.

A native of Dayton, Ohio, Mr. Watkins completed his doctor of musical arts degree at the University of Michigan. Honored as the recipient of both the Paul C. Boylan Award from the University of Michigan for his outstanding contributions to the field of music and a Special Achievement Award from the National Alumni Association of the University of Dayton, he is also the 2019 recipient of the Lift Every Voice Legacy Award from the National Opera Association. He was recently recognized as one the 2022 Top Professionals of the Year by Musical America in part for his work to celebrate the music of Black composers and singers.