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. 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. She was the winner of the Rodney Gibson Early Music Prize at the 2021 Patricia Routledge National English Song Competition; the Liz Chant Bursary Competition; the John & Barbara Beaumont Bursary Competition and was a Selected Artist for Making Music UK.
Emily was an Opera Holland Park Young Artist for 2022, singing Madame Larina in the Young Artist performances of Eugene Onegin. Recent and future engagements include Nobody/Somebody (Northern Ireland Opera), Sylviane THe Merry Widow (Glyndebourne Festival), Olga Eugene Onegin (Wild Arts on tour including a performance at Opera Holland Park), mezzo soloist What Dreams May Come and cover Romeo I Capuleti e i Montecchi, cover Nerone and Ottavia The Coronation of Poppea (English Touring Opera) and cover Octavian Der Rosenkavalier (Saffron Opera Group). Further operatic roles include 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).
Emily is a keen concert soloist and recitalist, with recent engagements including Elgar's Sea Pictures (Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham), Rossini's Petite Messe Solonnelle (York Musical Society); Manor Opera’s Gala in the Garden, Beethoven’s Mass in C (London Oriana Choir), Bach's Cantatas with Glasgow Bach Cantata Project, Elgar’s Sea Pictures (Watford Youth Sinfonia) and Elgar’s The Music Makers with Nottingham Festival Chorus.
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.
Mezzo Emily Hodkinson was the finest of the singers, with an appealing slightly smoky timbre.
5 stars
...all the performers – including Hodkinson – excel in their solo turns and together in duets and quartets.
Emily Hodkinson was tall, gawky and irresistible as Cherubino, giving the hormonal teenager’s two arias impressive urgency.
Emily Hodkinson steps out of the committed eight voice chorus to provide a memorable cameo as that rare thing, a politician with a conscience.
Emily Hodkinson's warmly sung, affectionate Nancy was a life-force, constantly encouraging Albert, enjoying her liasons with Sid, while suggesting that if she couldn't tame her Tedd-boy lover with the love of a good woman, she would have the strength to break away
Emily Hodkinson simpered personably as the Minskwoman, a role that found her relishing the spotlight in her opening solo but otherwise undersold her vocal and dramatic potential.
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.
Emily Hodkinson played Madame Larina with vocal precision and a secure sense of her status.