LUBKA KOLESSA (LJUBOV OLEKSANDRIVNA KOLESSA;
LEMBERG, GALICIA, AUSTRIA-HUNGARY, NOW LVIV, UKRAINE, MAY 19, 1902 - TORONTO,
CANADA, AUGUST 15, 1997)
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
researching Ukrainian folk music, her cousin Mykola Kolessa was an important
Ukrainian composer and conductor, 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 her father, the university professor Oleksandr
Kolessa, had been elected as a member of the Austrian Reichsrat. In Vienna she
studied at the Music Academy in Vienna with Louis Thern and Emil von Sauer.
What was spectacular in 1918 was when the just 16-year-old was awarded the
Austrian State Prize and the Bösendorfer Prize. In 1920 she received her
diploma. On March 14, 1924, she made her debut with the Berlin Philharmonic.
The young pianist now played as a soloist with the best orchestras and
conductors in Europe and soon acquired the reputation of an outstanding
soloist. She gave concerts in Berlin almost every year. In 1928 she undertook a
triumphant tour to her homeland, then Soviet Ukraine, to which she felt strong
ties. In late 1928 she was the last classical pianist in Freiburg im Breisgau
to record six pieces on piano rolls for the Welte-Mignon reproduction piano,
including Nestor Nyžankovskij's Variations on a Ukrainian Folksong. 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 performed a
concert on British television in Ukrainian national costume. In 1938 she
undertook 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
discs 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 peak of her career as a concert pianist, she moved from England
to Ottawa , Canada in 1940 . From 1942 she taught at the Royal Conservatory of
Music inToronto , from 1955 to 1966 at the École de Musique Vincent-d'Indy in
Montreal, from 1960 to 1971 at Montreal's 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 of 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 primarily to her
teaching activities. Her students included Composers like Clermont Pépin and
John Hawkins, conductors like Mario Bernardi and pianists like Howard Brown. In
2003, on the occasion of her 100th birthday in 2002, a scholarship was
established in her memory at McGill University, the Lubka Kolessa Piano Scholarship
Fund.
TRACKLIST
4175 WELTE-MIGNON SCHUBERT -
Scherzo No. 1, B; Impromptu, Op. 90, No. 2, Eb
4177 WELTE-MIGNON CHOPIN -
Grande valse brillante, Op. 18, Eb
4178 WELTE-MIGNON CHOPIN -
Mazurka, Op. 33, No. 2, D
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