About Emily

Nottingham-born mezzo-soprano Emily Hodkinson is a recent graduate of the Alexander Gibson Opera School at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where she studied with Clare Shearer, and was the recipient of a Sybil Tutton Opera Award, the Ena Mitchell Scholarship and the Ulrike Wilson Scholarship.

 Prior to this, she graduated with a First-class honours degree in Music from the University of York, and completed a year of postgraduate study at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland before joining the opera school.

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2024 was a busy year of firsts for Emily, she made her Glyndebourne solo debut as Sylviana in The Merry Widow, directed by Cal McCrystal and conducted by John Wilson. It will be broadcast on Christmas Day on BBC Four.

In December, Emily made her debut with The Hallé as the soloist for their Christmas Concert. She performed her first Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro with Saffron Opera Group in February, in which she was described as 'irresistible' by Opera Magazine. Emily sang her first Angel in The Dream of Gerontius with the Nottingham Harmonic Choir, and her first Mahler Symphony No. 4 with Kew Sinfonia, both in the autumn.

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2025 shall see Emily touring Eugene Onegin as Olga, directed by Dominic Dromgoole, for Wild Arts. She shall also tour 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.

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She was an Opera Holland Park Young Artist for 2022, singing Madame Larina in the Young Artist performances of Eugene Onegin. In 2023, she premiered Nobody/Somebody for Northern Ireland Opera, covered the roles of Nerone and Ottavia in The Coronation of Poppea with English Touring Opera, and sang in the Glyndebourne chorus for their Summer and Autumn seasons.

 

She was the winner of the Rodney Gibson Early Music Prize at the 2021 Patricia Routledge National English Song Competition, and was a Selected Artist for Making Music UK. She was the winner of the Liz Chant Bursary Competition and the John & Barbara Beaumont Bursary Competition.

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Emily is a keen concert soloist and recital giver, with recent engagements including Elgar's Sea Pictures at the Royal Concert Hall Nottingham in a pre-concert recital before the BBC Philharmonic; Rossini's Petite Messe Solonnelle with York Musical Society; Manor Opera’s Gala in the Garden, Beethoven’s Mass in C with London Oriana Choir, Bach's Cantata's with Glasgow Bach Cantata Project, Elgar’s Sea Pictures with Watford Youth Sinfonia and Elgar’s The Music Makers with Nottingham Festival Chorus.​

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Emily’s operatic roles include Madame Larina Eugene Onegin (Opera Holland Park Young Artist), Nancy Albert Herring (New Palace Opera), Minskwoman Flight, Jenny Die Dreigroschenoper (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland), Spirit Dido & Aeneas (Ryedale Festival); Wellgunde Das Rheingold (Edinburgh Players Opera Group); Siegrune Die Walküre (Weekend Opera Projects); Sara Tobias and the Angel (Streetwise Opera); Nancy Albert Herring and Female Chorus The Rape of Lucretia (Aspect Opera), Masha Paradise Moscow, La tasse Chinoise and L’écureuil L’enfant et les Sortilèges, and Sorceress Dido & Aeneas (University of York).

 In scenes, Cendrillon, Hänsel Hänsel und Gretel, Octavian Der Rosenkavalier, Hermia and Oberon A Midsummer Night's Dream, Charlotte Werther, Jo Little Women and Ruggiero Alcina, Dorabella Così fan tutte and Book of Fate The Enchanted Pig.

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Operatic roles at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland lost to Covid-19 include: Tolomeo Giulio Cesare, Geneviève Impressions de Pelléas, La libellule/l’écureuil L'enfant et les Sortilèges conducted by Martyn Brabbins with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Mère Marie Dialogues des Carmélites.

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Chorus work includes Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer at the 2022 Grange Park Festival, Wagner’s Götterdämmerung at the 2019 Edinburgh International Festival, and Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas at the 2019 Ryedale Festival.

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Emily is an experienced consort and choral singer, having sung with groups such as Britten Sinfonia Voices, the Dunedin Consort, the Carice Singers and Echo. She was a Fellow of the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain, and a member of Genesis Sixteen, The Sixteen’s prestigious training programme led by Harry Christophers and Eamonn Dougan. In 2018 she had the honour of being the first Female Alto to sing with the Men and Boys Choir at Southwell Minster, a landmark moment in the Minsters 900+ year history.

 

Emily is represented by Musichall Ltd.