About Masterclass Lady
Rosanne (Giallonardo) Simunovic began her musical career in Timmins, Ontario. She studied piano with Anne Pizzale and later, at an advanced level, with Soeur Anita Vaugeois (Sister Cecile of Les Soeurs De L’Assomption in Timmins). Her vocal and accompaniment skills were nurtured by her aunt, the late Dorothea Mascioli.
When Rosanne graduated from O’Gorman High School, she moved on to the University of Toronto where she continued her piano and vocal studies while attaining a Bachelor of Arts Degree. She was hired as a piano accompanist for several musical companies, most notably, the National Ballet Of Canada. She presently holds an A.R.C.T. Teacher’s Diploma in Voice from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.
Rosanne has studied choral conducting with numerous well known Canadian Conductors, including Wayne Riddell of Montreal, Quebec and the internationally renowned Dr. Elmer Iseler.
She has been a founding member of numerous community-based arts organizations: the Timmins Arts Council, later known as Arts & Culture Timmins, the Timmins Symphony Orchestra, and, the Timmins Youth Singers…as well as the TYS Alumnus choir, the Timmins Concert Singers. In 1987, she was also selected to be the conductor of the Timmins Board Of Education Choir, comprised of talented students from Grades 5 to 8.
In 1988, she was elected to the Board Of Directors of the Ontario Choral Federation (now known as Choirs Ontario), where she served as Chair of the Festivals Committee for six consecutive seasons. In 1996, in honour of the Ontario Choral Federation’s 25th Anniversary, Rosanne was selected as one of 25 recipients of the OCF’s Distinguished Service Award for outstanding contribution to the choral art. The ceremony was presided by Lieutenant Governor, Hal Jackman.
In November 1997, Rosanne Simunovic was selected by the Rotary Club Of Timmins to receive the prestigious Paul Harris Award for her years of dedication to the artistic development of young musical talent in Timmins.
In August of 2002, Rosanne Simunovic was selected by the Board Of Directors of Choirs Ontario to serve as Conductor of both the Provincial Junior and Teen Choir Camps, now renamed in honour of the Camp Benefactors, Don and Lillian Wright.
In November 2002, Rosanne was the one of the recipients of the Commemorative Medal for the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, honouring her work in the development of the arts in Timmins.
Under Rosanne Simunovic’s direction, the Timmins Youth Singers and the Timmins Concert Singers have been featured in numerous choral festivals and performing opportunities outside of Timmins. In 1985, they were selected to partici
May 21, 2008 
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MasterClassLady.Com 
Hi, MCL.
According to TMZ spoilers, “Iron Man” Robert Downey Jr. is the “biggest star”, not George Michael.
Here’s the rest of the article:
TMZ moles say the finale will include a virtual hologram of Gladys Knight singing “Midnight Train to Georgia” with Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Downey Jr. singing backup as the Pips. Holy Nat King Cole! “Idol” did this last season when Celine Dion sang along side a virtual undead Elvis. For the record, Gladys Knight is still alive.
We’re told the Jonas Brothers, ZZ Top, Seal, Bryan Adams, One Republic, Jordin Sparks and Carrie Underwood will also perform before David Archuleta (or possibly maybe, but not likely, Cook) is crowned the winner.
Also TMZ says 100 million votes were cast on yesterday’s finale!!
It should be a good show, but I wish they had the real Gladys Knight there and not a hologram…ah well. This will be one of the most unpredictable finales ever. DialIdol and the judges/media seem to have differing opinions on who’ll win. We’ll see at 10!
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Just want to say that the David/David duet was phenomenal!
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Well, I knew it was a David Cook win just by looking at them before the announcement. I think they are told the results prior to the announcement.
David Cook looked mighty nervous and fingering his mike, while David Archuleta looked happy and relieved.
So happy for both of them. I love them both so much. Superb and sensitive artists with stellar careers ahead of them.
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MasterClassLady, I knew I could come here and hear your gentle form of good sense. I am not as disappointed in the results as I believed I would be. I think David Cook is a phenomenol performer.
And David Archuleta will have whatever career he desires, with me waiting for however he wishes to entertain me.
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I am heartbroken. As much as I like and respect David Cook, I just really loved that kid. He is special.
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Yow! What an awesome finale, I thoroughly enjoyed it 🙂
Congratulations to David Cook…truly deserving of the title! Seeing him tonight and being able to have his brother there definitely gave me chills and especially seeing him sing the final song, it was no doubt dedicated to his brother! Did you hear him right after Ryan announced he had won “It’s his fault” (pointing to his brother) WOW!
Kudos to Simon too for apologizing to David Cook!
David Archuleta, though, has only just begun his very very successful musical career as well. I’m looking forward to hearing great things from both of them in the future!
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I knew it was David Cook when Simon started the “mea culpa” on his review. I really like David Cook – like his voice and he will represent the crown well.
I hope they put good producers with David A so his voice and style can be honoured. I’ll admit it – I was hoping he’d win. I’ll get to vote with my pocket book from now on and will welcome his first CD with anticipation.
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I’m very pleased with this result. But then I was not a David A fan at all, despite his great voice.
Although honestly? I was pretty sure it was Cook as soon as they said the numbers for the results. I didn’t think David A would be able to win by that much — I think if it had been the other way, it would have been much closer.
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comments still off at Rickey but I need a place to let go, hope you don’t mind MCL.
Congratulations David Cook. Not my style of music, but I have the utmost respect and admiration for his talent and musicality. He’s going to be very successful. What a classy guy and I know he will carry the title well.
Now David A. I’m heartbroken. In my mind, he is every bit a winner as David Cook. So much talent at a young age. His performances on the top 2 night moved me to tears, and seeing him so gracious and just as happy to end up the runner up only made it even more heartbreaking. He is special and I can’t wait to buy his album.
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This was probably the best Finale AI has had (minus the Mike Meyers bit). I was very pleased. Everything went so smoothly at the end and I do appreciate what a class act David Cook is. I was also happy for David A. He is not the loser as I see so much success in his future.
Adorable Jason had his solo! What an honor that was, and he did such a sweet and moving performance.
I loved the tribute to Gladys Knight. She has always been a friend to AI. It was very funny. Good night overall.
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Loved the show tonight. David Cook has been my favorite, but I really thought after last night Archuleta was going to win… he was superb. It didn’t really matter to me though since they are both so good!
As for Cook’s brother in the audience, I don’t think that is the brother with cancer. It’s great though that his family was with him tonight!
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Yeah Katillac is right…he has 2 brothers, one with cancer and one who brought him to the Idol Auditions.
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May I just say that David A’s duet with One Republic was awesome. Who says he can’t be contemporary? Love the new confidence he’s showing and appears more relax as well and seems glad not to have won. What a special kid.
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Oops….my bad. I know I read somewhere that David C’s brother who was sick was going to be in attendance last night. So I assummed that the person they showed was him (….guess I shouldn’t have assummed….not a big deal though!!!!)
Anyway, I agree, cersei, that the duet was great! I absolultely loved it. The highlight for me was when Bryan Adams performed…I love this guy!
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MCL,
I’m curious as to why you think they are told the results beforehand. The things I’ve heard seem to say differently. Clay accidentally saw the results, but he has always said that was an accident. And Bo has stated that he was standing up there hoping he wasn’t the winner before the results were announced.
I don’t know what’s occurred in the last couple of years, though. So maybe I’m off-base.
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I think it did come out – somewhere – in the past two years – that the Top 2 find out during the commercial break before the announcement. Just look at the body language – David C. looks primed to sing and David A looks totally relieved.
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Remember I posted that request for donations to bring Cookie’s sick brother Adam back from Terre Haute, Indiana to LA for the finale? (David’s younger brother, Andrew, is the one that came to AI to try out, but David got the ticket after Andrew insisted he try out as well!). Here is a post from the “Help Bring Adam Back For The AI Finale” forum, from the fan Cathy Wood who started the whole fundraising effort … and succeeded!
“I thought everyone should know that Adam and Kendra were in the audience last night, along with their children, the medic and the nurse they travel with. They didn’t sit down in the front with David’s mother and Andrew.
They are just the loveliest people you’d ever want to meet, as I knew they would be. We had a conversation before and after the show. I don’t want it to get out in a big way that I flew there (with my own money and got my own ticket for Tuesday through the kindness of a woman in Los Angeles), so I’m not posting about it on the American Idol board for right now, but I thought all of you who worked along with me to help raise money for Adam to be in L.A. deserved to know that even though they weren’t on camera last night, that Adam and Kendra were definitely there.
I’m still looking for tickets for tonight.
I talked to a reporter from People and Access Hollywood briefly over the phone yesterday morning, once I knew it was okay to say that the Cooks were in Los Angeles. There were several voice mail messages on my phone as soon as I got off the plane. It was kinda crazy! Pam Grout from People wanted to know if I had ever been involved in a fundraising effort before, and I said no. She was genuinely surprised I hadn’t done anything like this before.
I told her SEVERAL people contacted them trying to get them to print something to help raise money and got no response. She said unless you can get to someone specific, emailing them at their generic email address doesn’t do anything.
Duh!
All that matters is that Kendra and Adam were there to watch David perform and it was very emotional for everyone!”
I can tell you that, according to the Terre Haute paper, Adam did make it to both night’s shows! http://www.tribstar.com/local/local_story_143000147.html
Anita
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As I’ve said before, I’m not so much a David C. fan because his tastes in music don’t mesh with mine, but I am a big admirer–and after last night, more than ever. He deserves, ahem, “mad props” for being so very classy and gracious and humble and generous as a winner. Loved how he acknowledged his brother (“this is your fault!”). Loved how he shouted out for applause for David A., loved how he called the rest of the top 12 out on stage for his coronation song (I don’t recall any other winner doing that!)–and even waving them to come out onto the catwalk with him. And how great was it that he hugged David A. at the end, and then grabbed his roomie, Jason, by the shoulder? He’s ready.
I’ve admired David A’s voice from the audition round (again, his taste in music isn’t mine, but hey, it’s a big world, room for all!), but I don’t think he’ll lose anything, career-wise, by coming in second. If anything, a slightly slower trajectory would benefit him; if he needs any improvement, technically or vocally, I don’t know what it would be, but he appears to be a slower maturer than some, and it would be a good thing for him to have a little time to find out who he is (and, of course, his music would benefit thereby as well).
And MCL–what did you think of Jason’s solo? He really put it all on the stage last night, he was actually shaking during the second verse!
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Thank you Anita, for letting us know this. It means a lot to me. My heart goes out to the family as they deal with happiness and sorrow.
rereader, the problem was that Jason’s solo was too short. I am still trying to figure out those camera angles. Sweet moment for him.
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Hi everyone
What a fantastic season. I loved the finale and the way the contestants were honoured by giving them moments to sing the duets. Very nice touch. I would have cut the bird man spectacle and inserted clips of the top 2’s best performances…better use of the time.
I loved Syesha and Seal….awesome! Jason was amazing too, and I’m not even a fan of his. I also loved when the 2 Davids sang Hero, loved Apologize and loved ZZ top.
The 2 Davids are awesome and deserved to be in the finale. Both class acts, and when in the “zone” are both magical. I know it defies logic, but it seems that they are best when singing the cheesiest songs imaginable. I am surprised to say that I loved David Cook singing that coronation song….it’s something about his voice mixed with sappy lyrics that’s stunning. He has a huge career ahead of him.
I’m glad that Simon highlighted how nice the final 2 are, especially in light of the “smug/pompous” comments he kept throwing at David C. The smug comments were some of the most hurtful of the season. I know it’s part of the show, but sometimes these kids take such a beating, so it was nice to see some of that retracted.
Cook singing the coronation song and calling the top 12 to join him was the sweetest thing. It was also apparent that he cares a lot about David A, and vice versa.
This was probably my favourite season of American Idol, and it was topped with an awesome finale. For once, Idol got it right in the end!
Best of luck to all of the top 12.
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Thanks, Anita! I knew I had read it somewhere!
I really like Jason’s solo last night, but felt it was somewhat short too. But he completely rocked it, he looked so confident singing it. Where was this Jason throughout his weeks on Idol?
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The problem was that Jason’s solo was too short.
Yes, it was too short for me too. It’s the same version he sang back in the semis. In an interview with Nigel Lythgoe (the producer), he said that they asked Jason to sing Hallelujah as a solo for the finale. However, if you look at the lyrics ( http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/jeffbuckley/hallelujah.html ) I don’t know what they could have added and still kept it PG rated, considering that when Jason sings, you hear every word!
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