Manuela Iana – Mihăilescu
Ms. Manuela Mihăilescu is a graduate of the Ion Vidu Music School in Timișoara and the Ciprian Porumbescu Conservatory (National University of Music) in Bucharest. Ms. Mihăilescu is currently a piano professor at the Music Department of the West University of Timișoara. She has received numerous awards, including: First Prize at the Dinu Lipatti Competition in 1983, Bucharest; First Prize at the Cântăreața României Competition, editions 1979, 1985, 1987, 1989.
She specialized in performance at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Madrid (Spain), studying Spanish piano music in particular with professor and pianist Guillermo Gonzales. She integrated the study and performance experience of pieces from Isaac Albeniz’s Iberia series into her doctoral thesis “Piano Technique Regarding Impressionism in Music, as It Appears in the Solo Piano Works of Debussy, Ravel and Albeniz”, completed at the University of Music in Bucharest in November 2005, thus obtaining her doctorate in music. In 2005 she published “Suggestions for Approaching the Piano Works of C. Debussy, M. Ravel and I. Albeniz” and “Elements of Musical Language in the Piano Works of C. Debussy”, and in 2011 – “Coordinates of Musical Interpretation” for the West University of Timișoara Press.
Ms. Mihăilescu frequently appears with philharmonic orchestras in Romania (Timișoara, Arad, Oradea, Craiova, Constanța). Currently, she is a soloist with the Banatul Philharmonic in Timișoara (www.filarmonicabanatul.ro), an active chamber musician and recitalist, performing concerts in major musical centers in Romania, as well as abroad, in piano duo with Dragoș Mihăilescu in Germany, Italy, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, Serbia, Macedonia, Spain, France, Austria, Hungary, Greece.
Manuela Iana Mihăilescu has served on the jury at prestigious piano competitions, such as the competitions in Jaen (2002, 2005) and Valencia – Jose Roca (2003), Spain; the National Competition for Students Belgrade, Serbia (2011); the Euroregional Competition Alma Cornea Ionescu – Timișoara, Romania (2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019), the Pro Piano Competition – Timișoara (2016, 2018); the International Competition Citta di Cosenza, Cosenza, Italy – Jury President (2013), the International B. Bartók Competition, Szeged, Hungary (2017).
Since 1990 she has been a university professor at the Faculty of Music – West University of Timișoara, Romania.
She has been invited to teach piano masterclasses in Spain (Granada, Guadix), Italy (Adria, Campobasso, Mantova), Norway (Kristiansand – Agder University), Finland (Oulu), Bulgaria (Sofia), Portugal (Porto) and Romania (Timișoara, Oravița).
She has recorded 3 professional CDs (by Videoton Budapest, Hungary and Show Factory, Romania) with Dragoș Mihăilescu and has also recorded for Romanian National Television and Romanian Radio.
Manuela Iana-Mihăilescu has organized 12 editions of the Music Days in Oravița music festival (2008 – 2019). Facebook: Music Days in Oravița Festival.
She is President of the ArteORA Cultural Association and Vice President of the Kratima Association in Timișoara.
