Dracula Network

MIHAELA URSULEASA
Piano

“In a world where virtuoso young pianists often sacrifice musicality for flashiness, Romanian-born Ursuleasa is a class act” (Debut, Minnesota Orchestra)

The unique combination of vivacious playing, highest technical finesse and lyrical talent heralds Mihaela Ursuleasa as one of today’s remarkable pianists of her generation. Aptly reflected in a review of her debut with the Bournemouth Symphony in Spring 2003, of her Grieg concerto the critic noted, “…a propensity for pounding virtuosity, but tamed with explicit technical mastery”. Her musical views are sometimes provocative, and mirror the dynamic spark of her exceptional technique at the keyboard.

Mihaela Ursuleasa was born in Brasov, Romania in 1978. At the age of seven she had already given several public concerts and as a young teenager won second prize at the International Piano Competition in Senigallia. Upon the advice of Claudio Abbado, Mihaela Ursuleasa went to study 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. Alongside further study, carefully selected engagements followed: Beethoven's 3rd Piano Concerto under Claudio Abbado in Vienna, Schumann's Piano Concerto in A minor at the International Festival in St. Petersburg, Chopin's Piano Concerto in F minor in Hanover and Munich, as well as several recitals in Rome, Frankfurt, Vienna, Davos and at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival. In June 1999, she graduated with a diploma cum laude.

Mihaela Ursuleasa is now regularly re-invited after debut engagements, which for the 2004/05 season has included a return to the Rotterdam Philharmonic under Hans Graf, and to the Bournemouth Symphony under Kees Bakels. The same season she gave her concerto debut with Sir Colin Davis and the Orchestre National de France in Paris performing Mozart and her debut with the Philharmonia London performing Beethoven’s Tripelconcerto. Her first collaboration with Marek Janowski led to several reinvitations both to the Orchestre de Monte Carlo and to the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin.

Mihaela Ursuleasa has made significant debuts with the Concertgebouw under the direction of Kurt Sanderling playing Mozart, her Salzburg debut with the Mozarteum Orchestra also performing Mozart, her US concerto debut performing Ravel with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and Hugh Wolff, and her first tour in Germany with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie under Paavo Järvi. Performances with Bamberg Symphony, Dresden Philharmonic, and, in the US with the Cincinnati and Minnesota orchestras under the direction of Paavo Järvi and Osmo Vänska have followed. Ursuleasa has additionally toured Germany with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields with Sir Neville Marriner, and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra with Neeme Järvi.

Her often-noted poetic qualities at the keyboard, and great emotional depth have impressed audiences no less in recital. She has appeared on various young artists' series worldwide giving recitals in Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, the Philharmonie Cologne, Konzerthaus Vienna, Tonhalle Zürich and Carnegie Hall in New York. Mihaela Ursuleasa made her London recital debut with brilliant success in London in the Harrods International Piano Series at the South Bank Centre and returned in Spring 2004 making an impressive debut at the Wigmore Hall. She

also performs recitals again in Cologne’s Philharmonie and she recently performed in Manchester.

Currently resident in Vienna, this important musical capital has provided a significant platform for this engaging artist. For the season 2005/2006 she is invited to play a recital at the Musikverein and will perform Bartok’s 3. piano concerto with the Vienna Jeunesse Orchestra in January 2006 there.
As an ardent chamber musician, she performs frequently with various partners. In the summer of 2005 she appears at the Carinthischer Sommer, the West Cork Chamber Music Festival, the Festival International de Radio France and the Klavierfest Ruhr. She has recently been a guest artist at the International Chamber Music Festival in Stavanger, Lars Vogt’s festival “Spannungen” in Heimbach, the Marlboro Music Festival in the USA.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003)

Gellar left All My Children in 1995 amid rumors of a strained working relationship with Lucci. Gellar stated that she was screen tested eleven times (originally auditioning for the role of Cordelia), before she landed the lead in the 1997 TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, playing a teenager burdened with the responsibility of fighting a number of mystical foes, mostly vampires. The show was well received by critics and audiences alike, spawning a spin-off series (Angel), which featured two episodes in which she notably guest starred. Throughout its seven seasons and a total of 144 episodes, Buffy, and by extension Gellar, became cult icons in the United States, the UK and Australia, particularly as archetypes of "empowered" women. Gellar sang several of the songs during the Buffy the Vampire Slayer musical episode "Once More, with Feeling", which spawned an original cast album.

During the show's later years, Gellar expressed dissatisfaction about certain aspects of the show.] Shortly after the show's end, Gellar stated that she had no interest in appearing in a Buffy feature film, although since then she has said she will consider it if the script is good enough. She did not appear in the final season of Angel, causing the intended episode ("You're Welcome") to be rewritten for the character of Cordelia Chase. Gellar has said that she was willing to appear in the episode, but scheduling conflicts and family problems prevented it. Gellar has declined to lend her voice to the various Buffy video games, and another actress voiced Buffy for an animated series based on the show, which never aired.

In her feature in Esquire magazine Gellar expressed her pride for her work on Buffy, "I truly believe that it is one of the greatest shows of all time and it will go down in history as that. And I don’t feel that that is a cocky statement. We changed the way that people looked at television."

Sarah Michelle Gellar
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gellar, at the Tribeca Film Festival, May 2007.
Born Sarah Michelle Gellar
April 14, 1977 (1977-04-14) (age 31)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Other name(s) Sarah Michelle Prinze
Occupation Actress
Years active 1981–present
Spouse(s) Freddie Prinze, Jr. (2002-present)
Sarah Michelle Prinze, (born April 14, 1977) better known by her birth name of Sarah Michelle Gellar, is an American actress. She is best known for her role as the character Buffy Summers in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, for which she won in total six Teen Choice Awards, and the Saturn Award for Best Genre TV Actress and received a Golden Globe Award nomination. She won a Daytime Emmy Award for her role in All My Children as character Kendall Hart.

She has since become known as a film actress, starring in the family film Scooby-Doo (2002) as Daphne Blake, and the American remake of Japanese horror film The Grudge (2004) and its sequel The Grudge 2 (2006). Earlier establishing roles include the teen drama Cruel Intentions (1999); the slasher film I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997); another slasher film, Scream 2 (1997); and the independent film Harvard Man (2001). Most recently she played an ex-porn star in Richard Kelly's Southland Tales (2007) and was part of an ensemble cast in The Air I Breathe (2008).

Crina Popescu (14) conquers Aconcagua

Romanian climber Crina Popescu, only 14 years and one month of age, succeeded to conquer Aconcagua, 6,962 meters high, the highest peak of the world, outside Asia, thus became the youngest climber who attains the peak located on the border between Argentina and Chile, taking the Polish Glacier, the most difficult route.

Crina Popescu arrived at the peak on Jan 10 joining one of the Altitude Mountain Club's crew, including Ovidiu Popescu and Daniel Teodor. It is worth mentioning that taking this difficult route, the crew attained the peak in 6 days, only after having entered the Aconcagua National Park, and the performance was achieved thanks to the very good acclimatization, previously obtained on the Ojos de Salado, the world's highest volcano, whose peak Crina had climbed two weeks before.

The second Altitude Mountain Club climbing crew made of Radu Teodorescu and Valeriu Penes attained the peak on Jan 9, 2009, only five days after having entered the Aconcagua National Park, climbing along the Horcones Valley, which is the normal route.

Crina Popescu also has climbed, since 10 years old, peaks such as the Dente del Gigante (4,014 m) and Mont Blanc (4,810 m), in the Alps, Kalapatar (5,45 m) in Nepal, Kazbek (5,047 m) in the Caucasus, Damavand (5,761) in Iran and the Ojos de Salado volcano, two weeks ago, and many of them are a first for a 14 year old girl. Crina joined the Altitude Mountain Club and her father and coach Ovidiu Popescu joins her in all the expeditions.

Cea mai tânără alpinistă din România, Crina Popescu, în vârstă de 14 ani şi patru luni, a primit, miercuri, din partea MTS titlul de Maestru al Sportului, pentru recordurile pe care le-a doborât, printre care cucerirea vârfului Aconcagua (6.962 metri).

Pe lângă acest titlu, sportiva a mai primit din partea Ministerului Tineretului şi Sportului suma de 16.000 de euro de care avea nevoie pentru expediţia de cucerire a vârfului Cho Oyu, inclus în categoria Seven Summit. Atingerea acestei performanţe ar reprezenta un dublu record: prima femeie din România care cucereşte un vârf de peste 8.000 de metri şi cel mai tânăr alpinist din lume care urcă la această înălţime, în lanţul Himalayan. În total expediţia costă 100.000 de euro, iar suma acordată de MTS este cea care lipsea pentru ca sportiva să poată pleca.

Ministrul Tineretului şi Sportului, Monica Iacob Ridzi, a vorbit despre următoarea expediţie a româncei: "Ministerul se alătură unui demers curajos, acela de a încerca să doboare două recorduri. Expediţia va rămâne în istoria alpinismului şi ne bucurăm să încurajăm oamenii dornici să practice un sport. Am acordat sprijinul financiar necesar pentru o astfel de expediţie care este extrem de costisitoare. Este vorba de 16.000 de euro, sumă care va acoperi cheltuielile deplasării lui Coco în această expediţie''.

Prezent la eveniment, secretarul de stat al MTS, Octavian Belu, a vorbit despre Crina Popescu catalogând drept impresionante performanţele ei: "Ea poate fi un model pentru fetele de vârsta ei. Îşi propune ceva care trece dincolo de posibilităţile unui om matur, iar pentru mine ceea ce face ea înseamnă că sportul românesc mai are o speranţă".

Crina Popescu a vorbit despre ceea ce reprezintă pregătirea unei expediţii: "Pentru un vârf de peste 8.000 de metri e nevoie de multe antrenamente. Eu mă pregătesc zilnic timp de 3-4 ore, aş face şi mai mult, dar trebuie să ajung şi la şcoală. Prima dată când am urcat pe munte a fost la şase ani, la Omu, iar la zece ani am fost în Alpi. Vreau să merg pe Cho Oyu pentru a cucerit primul vârf din Himalaya".

Crina Popescu a atins pe 10 ianuarie 2009 cel mai înalt masiv din afara Asiei, vârful Aconcagua (6.962 metri), pe ruta Gheţarului Polonez, ea devenind cea mai tânără alpinistă care a urcat pe acest munte. Alpinista a început să escaladeze la vârsta de 10 ani şi a mai cucerit vârfurile: Dente del Gigante (4.014 metri) şi Mont Blanc (4.810 metri) în Alpi, Kalapatar (5.545 metri) în Nepal, Kazbek (5.047 metri) în Caucaz, Damavand (5.761) în Iran.

Motiv de mandrie: Ofelia Hough, o romanca stabilita in Irlanda, a primit cea mai importanta distinctie a Academiei de Politie a acestei tari
de Cristian Roman HotNews.ro
Joi, 9 aprilie 2009, 17:50 Actualitate | Diasporă

Ofelia Hough, alaturi de seful politiei din Limerick
Foto: press22.ie
A venit prima oara in Irlanda acum 11 ani, pe cand avea doar 20 de ani, ca ingrijitoare in casa unei familii. Intre timp, ajunsa la 31 de ani, Ofelia Hough, casatorita intre timp cu un irlandez si devenind si ea cetatean al acestei tari, a primit miercuri cea mai inalta distinctie acordata absolventilor Academiei de Politie din Irlanda, situata in Templemore (County Tipperary), in sud-vestul tarii.

Ofelia a fost desemnata cel mai valoros recrut dupa incheierea celor doi ani de studii, primind distinctia Gary Sheehan Memorial Medal, dedicata unui recrut care a fost ucis in 1983 in timpul conflictului nord-irlandez.

Potrivit irishtimes.com, romanca vorbeste nu mai putin de cinci limbi straine si a fost trimisa si in misiuni externe ale Politiei Irlandeze, gratie acestei calitati. La ceremonia de absolvire de miercuri, Ofelia a fost asistata de sotul ei, Liam, si de familia din Romania, venita special din Brasov in Irlanda pentru acest lucru.

In Romania, pina in 1998, Ofelia a lucrat la Biroul National de Turism si a avut o colaborare cu publicatia Transilvania Expres. In Irlanda, pana sa intre in randurile Academiei de Politie, acum doi ani, Ofelia a studiat in cadrul National University of Ireland, din Galway (vestul Irlandei).

“Nici in cele mai indepartate vise nu mi-as fi inchipuit ca voi fi in aceasta postura. Sunt incantata si mandra sa ma aflu aici si sa primesc acest premiu”, a declarat Ofelia, citata de irishtimes.com.

Ofelia Hough va fi incadrata in curand ca politista cu norma intreaga la o sectie din centrul orasului Limerick, in vestul Irlandei, unde a fost trimisa in ultimul an pentru perfectionare.

Iata care sint criteriile in urma carora romanca a primit cea mai inalta distinctie a Academiei de Politie Irlandeze:

S-a distins in mediul academic al institutiei in cei doi ani de studii;
A adus contributii semnificative sectiei din Limerick unde s-a perfectionat;
A avut calitati de lider atat de puternice incat s-a distins in randul colegilor de studii si a primit aprecierea unanima a superiorilor sai si a personalului care a pregatit-o.