Dear Visitor,

Olga Beregszaszi was born in the Southern Carpathian Mountains, to a high-ranking Hungarian Army Officer and his beautiful Ukrainian Conductor and Teacher of Music wife. It was a bilingual household and as a child, Olga says, " I didn't realize these were two separate languages until I was much older." As a young woman, Olga graduated from the Academy of Theater and Music in Moscow. She then returned to Hungary to be married and there completed the Hungarian Academy of Film in Budapest. Early in her career, Olga loved to write Music for Poetry and frequently found her Expression in Literary and Chanson Evenings all over Budapest, other Hungarian cities and in neighboring countries. In all of her years on stage she has performed with some of Europe's great Musicians, Singers and Opera Stars and has even been accompanied by the famous Hundred Violins Gypsy Orchestra. Her first Evening of Russian songs, presented in Budapest last summer, was the result of months of work produced by Maria and Andras Nevai-Voros. These songs are Love Ballads, Old Gypsy Favorites, and Spiritual Songs.

A wonderful and heartfelt tradition created by Olga is her usually sold-out Christmas Concert in Budapest. Olga doesn't take a penny from this Concert. She explains that : "….the people of my hometown of Beregszasz (in the Ukraine) are so very poor that I take this Concert money to them once a year in the hope of easing their very harsh lives even a little." She tells of a visit to a former teacher a couple of years ago in winter : " I knocked on her door….and knocked again. While I waited a long time I noticed the windows were covered with threadbare blankets and the house was dark. Finally the old woman comes to the door and apologizes for the wait. She said that, like most of her neighbors, she could neither afford electricity nor heat and lived in this freezing cold house with little to eat. She spent her days in bed under the covers wearing several layers of clothing to keep warm hoping to survive yet one more subzero mountain winter."

"I love to sing songs which have a positive message full of hope," Olga says. "Only thus may I give Hope and Strength to my Audience." She continues by telling her story: "When I first Sang in my hometown of Beregszasz, after the collapse of Communism, I sang all of the Patriotic and best-loved songs which had been forbidden by this Totalitarian Regime for over 50 years! The people cried.

After the Communist Collapse Spirituality came back into the lives of the People deeply and rapidly. Olga says : " My Mother was an atheist after her Soviet upbringing. Yet after the Change, her Spirituality and Love of GOD grew in her on her own. I myself believe in GOD, because without Faith there is no Life. I usually wear a very old Cross on which the Virgin Mary is holding out her Hands in Blessing."

Olga lives in a small wine-growing village in the Buda-Hills outside of Budapest, which has one of Hungary’s first christian Chapels from the 12th Century. She loves to give elegant parties to her many friends who represent some of the great Artists, Performers, Intellectuals, Writers, Scholars, Media Personalities and Political figures of Central Europe.

Olga Beregszaszi (pronounced "Bereg-saasi") has several very popular Albums out on CD's. "My First Album, called 'Magyar Feltamadas' ('Resurrection of Hungary'), had the purpose of re-introducing these old songs to the People. The second Album, 'Szep Magyarorszag' ('Beautiful Hungary') was intended to give Hope, Faithfullness and Persistence to a downtrodden People who want to be re-unified."  [Note:  There are today still about 3 to 4 million Hungarians just over the border, in territory that used to be Hungary, in what is today called Romania (Transylvania), Croatia, Slovakia, Serbia, Ukraina, Slovenia and Austria which were in the 67% of Hungary that was cut off and arbitrarily given away by France, England, U.S., and Russia after World War I. {the Trianon Treaty}].

As the years go by, Olga's success and reputation have become International. She has not only performed for SRO audiences in the great Halls of Europe, but has had several great Tours to the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

www.beregszasziolga.hu