Lubka Kolessa

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Lubka Kolessa ( Ukrainian Любов Олександрівна Колесса Lyubow Oleksanderiwna Kolessa ; born May 19, 1902 in Lemberg , Galicia , today Lviv, Ukraine ; † August 15, 1997 in Toronto , Canada ) was a Ukrainian pianist and music teacher .

Life

Lubka Kolessa came from a musical family in which there were several composers and a cellist . Her uncle Filaret Kolessa was a well-known ethno-musicologist who devoted himself to the research of Ukrainian folk music, her cousin Mykola Kolessa was an important Ukrainian composer and conductor, and her sister Chrystia (Vienna 1916 - Ottawa 1978) was an important cellist.

Lubka Kolessa received her first lessons from her grandmother, who had studied piano with a Chopin student. In 1904 the family moved to Vienna because their father, the university professor Oleksandr Kolessa , had been elected as a member of the Austrian Reichsrat . In Vienna she studied at the Vienna Music Academy with Louis Thern and Emil von Sauer .

In 1918, the 16-year-old was awarded the Austrian State Prize and the Bösendorfer Prize. In 1920 she obtained her diploma. On March 14, 1924 she made her debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker . The young pianist now played as a soloist with the best orchestras and conductors in Europe and soon gained a reputation as an outstanding soloist. She gave concerts in Berlin almost every year.

In 1928 she undertook a triumphant tour to her homeland, the then Soviet Ukraine , to which she felt a strong bond. In late 1928 she was the last classical pianist in Freiburg im Breisgau to record six pieces on piano roles for the Welte-Mignon reproduction piano , including Nestor Nyžankovskij's Variations on a Ukrainian Folk Song . In 1929 and 1930 she attended master classes with Eugen d'Albert , who greatly influenced her style.

Kolessa went to England in 1937. On May 21, 1937 she played a concert on British television in Ukrainian national dress . In 1938 she made a very successful tour of South America. Until 1939 she also gave concerts on the European continent and in the same year recorded a series of records for His Master's Voice in Germany. On March 13, 1939, two days before the German troops marched in, she married the British diplomat Tracy Philipps in Prague. At the height of her career as a concert pianist, she moved from England to Ottawa in Canada in 1940 . Since 1942, she taught at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto , from 1955 to 1966 at the École de Musique Vincent-d'Indy in Montreal from 1960 to 1971 at the Montreal McGill University , and in 1959 and 1960 in New York at the Ukrainian Music Institute and also the Conservatoire de Musique et d'Art Dramatique de la Province de Quebec . She gave numerous concerts in North and South America and was considered one of the best and most sought-after pianists on the continent. In 1954 she played again in Europe, among other things she appeared again with the Berlin Philharmonic, then largely ended her concert activities and devoted herself mainly to her teaching activities.

In 2003, on the occasion of her 100th birthday in 2002, McGill University set up a scholarship in her memory, the Lubka Kolessa Piano Scholarship Fund.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Harald Binder: Galicia in Vienna: parties, elections, parliamentary groups and members of parliament in transition to mass politics . Vienna: Verl. Der Österr. Akad. Der Wiss., 2005. ISBN 3-7001-3326-X .
  2. ↑ Ireneus Zuk: The Ukrainian Weekly , May 3, 1998, No. 18, vol. LXVI
  3. ^ Lyle G. Wilson: A dictionary of pianists . London: Robert Hale, 1985
  4. ↑ Gerhard Dangel and Hans-W. Schmitz: Welte-Mignon piano rolls: complete catalog of the European recordings 1904 - 1932 for the Welte-Mignon reproduction piano / Welte-Mignon piano rolls: complete library of the European recordings 1904 - 1932 for the Welte-Mignon reproducing piano . Stuttgart 2006. ISBN 3-00-017110-X . P. 216 and 464
  5. ^ George Kehler: The Piano in Concert . Metuchen, NJ [u. a.]: The Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0-8108-1469-2 . P. 412.
  6. ^ The Times Marriage Notices
  7. ↑ Berliner Philharmoniker [1] , accessed on December 19, 2011

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personal data
SURNAME Kolessa, Lubka
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Philipps-Kolessa, Lubka; Kolessa, Ljubovʹ Oleksandrivna; Kolessa, Lyubov Olexanderiwna
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Ukrainian-Canadian pianist
DATE OF BIRTH May 19, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Lviv
DATE OF DEATH August 15, 1997
Place of death Toronto