Lubka Kolessa (19 May 1902, Lviv, Ukraine – 15 August 1997, Toronto, Canada) was a classical pianist and professor of piano.


Life

Lubka Kolessa came from a very musical family with some composers and a cellist from Lviv, at this time part of the Austrian Empire. Her uncle Filaret Kolessa was a noted musical ethnologist devoted to the research of Ukrainian popular music. Her cousin Mykola Kolessa was a prominent Ukrainian composer and conductor.
Her first lessons came from her grandmother, a pianist who had studied with a pupil of Chopin. In 1904 the family moved to Vienna. Her father Oleksandr Kolessa (1867-1945) had been elected as a deputy in the Austrian Reichsrat, the parliament of Cisleithania
In Vienna she studied at the Musikakademie Wien with Louis Thern and Emil von Sauer where she obtained her diploma in 1920, aged 16. She played as a soloist with the best orchestras and conductors of Europe and soon gained fame as a brilliant pianist.
In 1928 she undertook a triumphal tour to her homeland, at this time the Polish Ukraine. Later in 1928 she recorded as the last classical pianist six pieces for Welte-Mignon (see media). From 1929 to 1930 she studied again with Eugen d'Albert, who had a strong influence on her style.
On May 21, 1937, Kolessa appeared on British television, playing a concert while wearing Ukrainian folk dress
1938 she went on a very successful tour through South America. Until 1939 she played in Europe and recorded a number of records for His Master's Voice in Germany.
Kolessa married the British diplomat James Edward Tracy Philipps in Prague on 13 March 1939, the eve of the occupation.
On the summit of her career as a concert pianist she moved 1940 to Ottawa. She had numerous concerts including engagements with the New York Philharmonic.
From 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, for twelve years at the McGill University and 1959-1960 in New York City at the Ukrainian Music Institute as well as on the Conservatoire de Musique et d'Art Dramatique de la Province de Quebec.
She toured again throughout the Americas and was one of the most notable pianists in those continents. In 1954 she ended her concert-activities to devote herself to teaching.

Recordings

The Doremi label in 1999 released a set of three compact discs (DHR-7743-5) reissuing Kolessa's commercial recordings and some radio broadcasts, private recordings, and unissued recordings from 1936-1949. Works included range from two sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti to Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto and Brahms's Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.