Bourgie Hall presents

Ema Nikolovska, mezzo-soprano & Charles Richard-Hamelin, piano

Acclaimed for her expressive abilities and vast repertoire, mezzo-soprano Ema Nikolovska is the recipient of several prestigious awards, including the Ferrier Loveday Song Prize. Joined by celebrated Quebec pianist Charles Richard-Hamelin, she will perform lieder and art songs by Schubert, Medtner and Debussy.

Artists
Ema Nikolovska, mezzo-soprano

Macedonian-Canadian mezzo-soprano Ema Nikolovska completed her Master’s in Voice at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where she also completed the Opera Course. She was a BBC New Generation Artist from 2019-2022 and in 2022 she became a recipient of the prestigious Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award.

She is an Alumna of the International Opera Studio at the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin where last season she made her role debut as Octavian Der Rosenkavalier. In the 2023/24 season she makes her debut at the Royal Opera House’s Linbury Theatre singing the lead role in George Benjamin’s Picture a Day Like This, and her house and role debut as the Fox in Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen at the Canadian Opera Company.

Already a celebrated recitalist, her many appearances include a debut recital tour in the U.S. and Canada, including Carnegie Hall, and four recitals at Wigmore Hall, with Kunal Lahiry, Sean Shibe, Graham Johnson and Sir András Schiff.

Charles Richard-Hamelin, piano

Silver medalist and winner of the Krystian Zimerman Prize at the 2015 International Chopin Piano Competition, pianist Charles Richard-Hamelin has emerged as one of the most important pianists of his generation. Recipient of the Ordre des arts et des lettres du Québec and of the prestigious Career Development Award conferred by the Women’s Musical Club of Toronto, he was awarded the Prix Denise-Pelletier in November 2022, becoming the youngest recipient in the history of the Prix du Québec.

He has been invited to many major festivals such as La Roque d’Anthéron and the Nohant Festival in France, the Prague Spring Festival, the Chopin and his Europe Festival in Warsaw, the Lanaudière Festival and the George Enescu Festival in Bucarest. As a soloist, he has performed with many ensembles including the major Canadian symphony orchestras (Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Metropolitan, Quebec City, Edmonton, Calgary, etc.) as well as the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Sinfonia Varsovia, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Korean Symphony Orchestra, OFUNAM (Mexico), Les Violons du Roy and I Musici de Montréal. He has worked with such renowned conductors as Kent Nagano, Rafael Payare, Bernard Labadie, Antoni Wit, Vasily Petrenko, Jacek Kaspszyk, Aziz Shokhakimov, Peter Oundjian, Jacques Lacombe, Fabien Gabel, Carlo Rizzi, John Storgårds, Alexander Prior, Giancarlo Guerrero, Christoph Campestrini, Lan Shui, Otto Tausk, Jean-Marie Zeitouni, Kazuki Yamada, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Jonathan Cohen. Charles Richard-Hamelin is also active as a chamber musician. He has performed with Andrew Wan, James Ehnes, Marie-Nicole Lemieux, Marc-André Hamelin, the Dover Quartet, the New Orford Quartet, the Apollon Musagète Quartet and the Meccore Quartet, among others. A graduate of McGill University, the Yale School of Music and the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal, he studied with Paul Surdulescu, Sara Laimon, Boris Berman, André Laplante and Jean Saulnier.

Charles Richard-Hamelin has recorded eleven albums, all released on the Analekta label (Outhere Music). Five of these are dedicated primarily to the solo piano works of Frédéric Chopin; there are also four recordings with Andrew Wan, concertmaster of the OSM. He has also recorded concertante works: both Chopin piano concertos with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, conducted by Kent Nagano, and Mozart’s Piano Concertos nos. 22 and 24 with Les Violons du Roy, conducted by Jonathan Cohen. Six Félix awards (ADISQ) and a JUNO in 2022 saluted the quality of these albums, which have been received widespread acclaim from critics around the world.

Program
SCHUBERT
Im Frühling, D. 882
Dass sie hier gewesen, D. 775
Herbst, D. 945
Der Unglückliche, D. 713
TCHAÏKOVSKI « June », from The Seasons, Op. 37b
Margaret BONDS Songs of the Seasons
DEBUSSY
« Lent », from Images oubliées, L. 87
Ariettes Oubliées, L. 60
MEDTNER
Twilight, Op. 24 No. 4
Sleepessness, Op. 37 No. 1
SLONIMSKY Five Advertising Songs

Wednesday, March 20, 2024 at 7:30pm
To purchase your tickets visit: www.mbam.qc.ca/en/bourgie-hall/