Lubka Kolessa

Lubka Oleksandrivna Kolessa (Ukrainian: Любов Олександрівна Колесса; 19 May 1902 in Lemberg, Austro-Hungarian Empire – 15 August 1997 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada) was a classical pianist and professor of piano.

In Vienna she studied at the Musikakademie Wien with Louis Thern and Emil von Sauer where she obtained her diploma in 1920, aged 16.

Kolessa married the British diplomat James Edward Tracy Philipps in Prague on 13 March 1939, the eve of the occupation.

From 1942 she taught piano 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 at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal.

Among her notable pupils were conductor and pianist Mario Bernardi, composers Clermont Pépin and John Hawkins and pianists Howard Brown Karen Quinton, Richard Gresko, Louis-Philippe Pelletier, Eugene Plawutsky, Pierrette Froment Savoie, Luba Zuk and Ireneus Zuk.

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.