Ovidiu-Mihai Ionel

Ovidiu-Mihai Ionel (born January 2, 1986) is a Romanian musician and theatre writer, known best for his lyrical play “The Bridge” and also for his strange views in music. Ionel won three Literature Awards in Romania for articles regarding discrimination and for the article “Once upon a time, the Romanian Dream for U.S.”

Early career

Ionel was born in Bucharest, Romania, the son of Doru, a respected musician and actor, and Nicoleta Ionel, an economist. He grew up in Romania until 1990. Moved to Denmark for 4 years. He came back to Romania, and started to study Industrial Mechanics, music and theatre. Ionel spent all his free time in the opera house, at theatre or listening to George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra. In high school, the 10th grade he was expelled for his views regarding the remnant communist teachers after the fall of Ceausescu. He wrote his first play, “The Red Bridge” and fled to Great Britain to study music improvisation and theatre. At the end of the first year he didn’t want to participate to any exams, and wrote a 20 minutes musical to express the nonsense teachers are teaching children these days. He got back to Romania to finish the high school, and worked with musicians like Nicolae Georoiu, best known for his work with Andrew Lloyd Webber Orchestra. Ionel tried to study a few instruments - especially alto saxophone, but he didn’t have patience for them, and he engaged in training teenagers to sing his music and also to write music. He started to study different dance styles, and since 2007 works as a choreographer and dancer.

Musical influences

Ionel’s music is often described as sad or depressing. In a few interviews he said that he is very influenced by the life in the city, the cars, air pollution, human problems.

Works

Ovidiu wrote four theatre plays, until the age of 20 (“The Red Bridge”, “The Elevator”, “The Rain” and “The Bridge” with music by George Baicea) “The Bridge” has been played for 6 months in Bucharest where he was cast in the first role, and also 4 representations in Manchester. He is now working with two projects: a musical called “The Clouds Adventure”, a child drama, whose innocence is stolen by the city and a play called “Have you ever tasted the sky?” with music by George Baicea, about how media is controlling our life, and how easy is to be free.

Criticism

According to some teachers from the University of Manchester, Ionel's "music origins and lack of training raised doubts he can write a musical - often considered a would-be composer who can’t read music”. Ionel stated that he worked over 14 hours a day, seven days a week, to write the musical: "I won’t sit back and allow myself to be discredited for the work I did by an asshole who thinks a composer can be trained only in a conservatory.”

Reference

Ovidiu M. Ionel biography and the award winning articles Ovidiu M. Ionel Nicolae Georoiu biography

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