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Mihaela Ursuleasa

About this Artist

MIHAELA URSULEASA was born in Brasov, Romania in 1978. As a teenager she won second prize at the International Piano Competition in Senigallia. Upon the advice of Claudio Abbado, Mihaela studied with Prof. Heinz Medjimorec at the Vienna Conservatory. She reaped the fruits of this decision in 1995, when she won the Clara Haskil Competition aged 16. In June 1999, she graduated with a diploma cum laude.

Having made a spectacular debut recital tour to North America in 2006, Ursuleasa returned in 2007/08, performing recitals in New York, San Francisco, Cincinnati, Minneapolis, and Philadelphia. She performed with the Vancouver Symphony under Hugh Wolff and with the New Jersey Symphony under Neeme Järvi.

Other highlights included her debut in October with the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris under Andris Nelsons playing Grieg’s Piano Concerto followed by her debut with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg conducted by John Storgårds. She also performed concertos with the Dortmund Konzerthaus Orchestra and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra.

Ursuleasa has made impressive debuts with the Concertgebouw Orchestra under the direction of Kurt Sanderling, the Orchestre National de France with Sir Colin Davis, the Mozarteum Orchestra in Salzburg, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Bamberg Symphony, the Dresden Philharmonic, the Radio Symphony Orchestra of Berlin, and the Weimar Staatskapelle. Her first tour of Germany was undertaken with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie under Paavo Järvi. She has also toured with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields with Sir Neville Marriner, and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra with Neeme Järvi.

An ardent chamber musician, she performs frequently with various partners. In the 2007/08 season she joined with violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja for a tour in the Netherlands and Belgium that began in Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. Together with cellist Sol Gabetta, she performed in Brussels, Torino, Firenze, and Bilbao. They also appeared together at the 2008 West Cork Festival.

Mihaela Ursuleasa made her recital debut at the Lucerne Festival in the summer of 2006. She has also appeared at the Salzburg, Davos Musik, and the Lockenhaus festivals, the International Chamber Music Festival in Stavanger, Lars Vogt’s festival “Spannungen” in Heimbach, and in North America’s Marlboro Music Festival and Launaudiere Festival (Canada), which in 2007 included a recital (after her spectacular 2006 debut) and a concerto performance with Les Violons du Roy.

Please visit ursuleasa.com.