Commemorating a legendary Ukrainian pianist: Lubka Kolessa (1902-1997) (01/19/03)

Commemorating a legendary Ukrainian pianist: Lubka Kolessa (1902-1997)

MONTREAL - A program celebrating the life and international concert career of the legendary Ukrainian pianist, Lubka Kolessa, on the centenary of the artist's birth, was held on November 17, 2002, at the Ukrainian National Federation Hall under the auspices of the Olha Basarab Ukrainian Women's Organization of Montreal. The program featured a lecture by Luba Zuk, former student of Lubka Kolessa and now professor of piano at the faculty of music at McGill University. The lecture was illustrated using the recently issued three-set CD recording of Mme. Kolessa's live performances.

In her lecture, Prof. Zuk outlined the active life path of Lubka Kolessa from her birth in Lviv in 1902, through years of training in Vienna, her early public concerts, and her spectacular rise to a great international career. In her overview Prof. Zuk singled out Kolessa's triumphant concert tour in (Soviet) Ukraine in 1928, acclaimed appearances with leading orchestras under renowned conductors in practically all the major concert halls of Europe, as well as several tours in South and North America, concluding with her arrival in Canada in 1940, where she continued to lead an active career as a performer and subsequently gained recognition as a great pedagogue until her passing in 1997.

In the course of her lecture Prof. Zuk quoted some of the countless accolades accorded Lubka Kolessa by music critics, press and conductors alike. The great conductor Bruno Walter considered Kolessa "certainly one of the most superb pianists of our time"; Harold Taubman of New York judged her "an artist with a mind and heart of her own"; the Toronto Globe and Mail article, headlined "Kolessa's Triumph" recounted that "No pianist of recent years roused more sincere and fervent expression of admiration," going on to note that a particular performance "was a rendering that stirred every musical fiber in those who heard it." "Masterly Performance," said the Washington Sun, and Rio de Janeiro's A Noite wrote "the concerts of Lubka Kolessa were a great event in the world of art."

European critics were equally unanimous in their praise of Kolessa's pianistic artistry; the press of Berlin, Leipzig, Munich, Dresden, Zurich, Stockholm, Prague, Copenhagen, Lviv, Kharkiv and Kyiv, among others, referred to her variously as "a pianistic phenomenon," "a star of the first magnitude," and "exciting, moving, inspiring, brilliant, colorful, superbly artistic."

In closing, Prof. Zuk informed the audience that the McGill Faculty of Music has established the Lubka Kolessa Scholarship Fund, commemorating the pianist's teaching activity at McGill University in 1960-1971. The scholarship will benefit gifted piano students and will preserve and perpetuate the legacy of this great Ukrainian pianist. (It was noted that McGill University will issue receipts for income tax purposes for all donations towards the Lubka Kolessa Scholarship Fund.)

The audience was also reminded about the three-set CD recording - "Lubka Kolessa," which was recently released on the DoReMi label as part of the Legendary Treasures Series. The CD is available in music stores or by accessing the label's website: www.doremi.com. Recorded featured works include Piano Concerto No. 3 by Beethoven and Piano Concerto No. 24 by Mozart with the Saxon State Orchestra and the Berlin Radio Orchestra, respectively, as well as solo works by Chopin, Scarlatti, Mozart, Liszt, Brahms, and Schumann, among others.

An extensive exhibition of photographs and documents from the Kolessa Family Archives, organized and presented by Tetiana Gerych, daughter of Lubka Kolessa's younger sister, the renowned cellist Chrystia Kolessa (1915-1978), was a special feature of the event.

As part of the program proceedings, Yaroslava Maksymkiw, UWO Montreal chapter president, delivered opening and closing remarks; Vira Banit, UWO cultural officer, introduced the speaker; and Ludmyla Korolec recited a poem appropriate to the occasion, Mykola Voronyi's "Sertse Muzyky" (The Heart of Music).

The program concluded with a lively question and answer period, while several members of the audience offered personal reminiscences of performances by the legendary artist.

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