Emily Hodkinson | Mezzo-Soprano
Emily Hodkinson
Mezzo-Soprano
"It is amazing what difference a wig and cap can make. Having met Emily Hodkinson at a Young Artists event earlier in the year I was very struck by how different her Madame Larina was from the real Emily. This Larina was very poised and centred, cool almost and she had a Jane Austen-esque sense of floating through life unaware of the little dramas eddying round her."
Eugene Onegin, Opera Holland Park (Young Artist)
Planet Hugill, June 2022
About
Emily is a mezzo-soprano hailing from Nottingham.
A graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Alexander Gibson Opera School and the University of York, she was a 2022 Opera Holland Park Young Artist, and winner of the Rodney Gibson Early Music Prize at the 2021 Patricia Routledge National English Song Competition.
The 2024-2025 operatic seasons saw Emily make her Glyndebourne solo debut as Sylviana in The Merry Widow, directed by Cal McCrystal and conducted by John Wilson. It was broadcast on Christmas Day on BBC Four and is available on BBC iPlayer. She toured Eugene Onegin as Olga, directed by Dominic Dromgoole (ex-Artistic Director of Shakespeare's Globe), for Wild Arts; What Dreams May Come and The Vanishing Forest with English Touring Opera, and cover Romeo in I Capuleti e i Montecchi, also for English Touring Opera. She performed her first Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro with Saffron Opera Group, in which she was described as 'irresistible' by Opera Magazine. She premiered John Joubert’s Jane Eyre in Eleanor Burke's production at Grimeborn Opera, along with Testament for Green Opera.
Emily made her debut with The Hallé as the soloist for their 2024 Christmas Concert. Further concert work in 2024-25 included multiple performances as the Angel in Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, Mahler's Symphony No.4 with Kew Sinfonia, Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Handel’s Messiah.
Summer 2026 sees Emily covering the title role in David Alden's production of Giulio Cesare and Olga in Max Webster's production of Eugene Onegin at The Grange Festival.
Recent and forthcoming concert work includes Mahler's Symphony No.2 for Winchester Symphony Orchestra, Elgar's Sea Pictures for Farnborough Symphony Orchestra, Elgar's The Music Makers and Bach's Mass in B Minor, both for Nottingham Harmonic Choir.
With a voice described as 'silvery, mellifluous and warm', Emily is forging a path as a dynamic and exciting young operatic lyric mezzo-soprano.
When not singing, Emily can be found repairing watches and helping at the family pick-your-own farm, growing thousands of pumpkins and sunflowers!