Mihaela Ursuleasa

Ursuleasa began playing the piano at the age of five under the tutelage of her Romani father, a jazz musician. In 1990, at the age of 12, she obtained a grant to study in Vienna. She went on to perform at Carnegie Hall, with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester in Berlin, with the Orchestre National de France, as well as with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.^[1]

In 2000, she received an honorable mention at the XIV International Chopin Piano Competition.

In 2010, she was awarded the Echo Klassik award for her debut album Piano & Forte.^[2] She released her second album, Romanian Rhapsody in 2011.

Ursuleasa was found dead in her Vienna home on 2 August 2012 of a cerebral hemorrhage. She was 33. She is interred at the Bellu Cemetery in Bucharest.^[3][4][5]

Ursuleasa was memorialised by her musician colleagues, such as the violist, Maxim Rysanov, who paid homage to Ursuleasa with his 2012 album "PAVANE" and reckoned her as a wonderful musician and a very special person.^[6]

• 2010: Piano & Forte (Berlin Classics)
  • featuring Ludwig van Beethoven's 32 variations on an original theme, WoO 80; Johannes Brahms' Three Intermezzi, Op. 117; Maurice Ravel's Gaspard de la nuit; Alberto Ginastera's first piano sonata, Op. 22; and Paul Constantinescu's Joc dobrogean
• 2011: Romanian Rhapsody (Berlin Classics)—featuring violinist Gilles Apap.
  • featuring George Enescu's Romanian Rhapsody No. 1, Op. 11, No. 1; Paul Constantinescu's Suite for Piano; Franz Schubert's Three Piano Pieces, D.946; Béla Bartók's Two Romanian Dances, Op. 8a, Sz. 43, and Rhapsody for Violin and Piano No. 2, Sz. 90.

• 1995: XVIth Clara Haskil Competition 1995 with the Orchestre De Chambre De Lausanne & Jesus Lopez-Cobos, conducting. (Claves Records)
  • featuring Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 9 in E-flat Major, K. 271, "Jeunehomme" and Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat Major, Op. 73, "Emperor".
• 2010: Patricia Kopatchinskaja: Rapsodia (Naïve)--featuring violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja, cimbalomist Viktor Kopatchinsky, violinist Emilia Kopatchinskaja, pianist Mihaela Ursuleasa