Lubka Kolessa

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

The Kolessa family was a prominent Ukrainian intellectual family living in Lviv, Western Ukraine, which treated music very seriously. The family included a number of professional composers and performers. Her uncle Filaret Kolessa was a noted ethnomusicologist devoted to the research of Ukrainian folk music. Her cousin Mykola Kolessa was a prominent Ukrainian composer and conductor. Chrystia Kolessa, Lubka's sister was an illustrious cellist.

Her first lessons came from her grandmother, a pianist who had studied with Karol Mikuli, a pupil of Chopin. Her father Oleksandr Kolessa (1867–1945) had been elected as a deputy in the Austrian Reichsrat, the parliament of Cisleithania. In 1904 the family moved to Vienna.

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 now under the administration of Poland. 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 performance style.

On 21 May 1937, Kolessa appeared on British television, playing a concert while wearing Ukrainian folk dress.

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