Halyna Levytska

Halyna Levytska
Галина Левицька
Born
Галина Львiвна Левицька
Halyna Lvivna Levytska

(1901-01-23)23 January 1901
Pruchnik, Galicia, Austria-Hungary
Died13 July 1949(1949-07-13) (aged 48)
Other namesГалина Левицька-Крушельницька
Halyna Levytska-Krushelnytska
Spouse
Ivan Krushelnytskyi
(died 1934)
ChildrenLarysa Krushelnytska
RelativesAntin Krushelnytskyi (father-in-law)
Maria Krushelnytska (niece)
Musical career
EducationUniversity of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, 1920
OccupationProfessor
InstrumentPiano
Writing career
Pen nameОксана Пʼятигорська
Olena Piatyhorska

Halyna Lvivna Levytska (married name Halyna Levytska-Krushelnytska; Ukrainian: Галина Львiвна Левицька, 23 January 1901 – 13 July 1949), also known by the nom-de-plume Olena Piatyhorska (Ukrainian: Оксана Пʼятигорська), was a Ukrainian and Soviet pianist and professor.[1] Levytska was a professor of Lviv Conservatory and the first director of the musical school associated with the conservatory.[2]

Biography

Levytska was born in Pruchnik, Austria-Hungary (currently Poland), in a Ukrainian family. Her father, Lev Levytskyi, was a lawyer. She first learned piano from her mother, an amateur piano player, continued in a girls boarding school in Przemyśl, and in 1920 she graduated from Vienna Academy of Music and Performing Arts. After that, she was giving concerts, mainly in Eastern Europe, in particular, performing pieces of Ukrainian composers.[2]

Since 1926, Levytska was teaching at Mykola Lysenko Music Institute, and, between 1926 and 1932, in the Stryi branch of the institute. In 1932, her husband and his family, including their daughter, left for the Soviet Union where they thought new opportunities for national cultural revival were opening up. Levytska was ill and stayed behind in Lviv. In 1934, her husband was arrested and subsequently executed. She managed, with the help of the Red Cross, to get the daughter back to Lviv.[2][3]

In August 1939, Levytska was invited to visit the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. She had to postpone the trip due to illness and never made it to Sydney, since World War II started.[3]

After the Soviet annexation of Eastern Galicia and Volhynia in 1939 Levytska was appointed a professor at Lviv National Music Academy, which was founded by merging of several institutions including the Lysenko Institute, and in 1940 she helped organize a musical school associated with the conservatory and was appointed the director of the school. After the war, Levytska continued to give concerts in Lviv, solo as well as together with her sisters, Mariia (cello) and Stefaniia (violin). She died in 1949 in Lviv.[2] The house where she lived now features a memorial plaque.[3]

Personal life

Levytska married the poet and artist Ivan Krushelnytskyi.[1] Levytska and Krushelnytskyi had one daughter the historian Larysa Krushelnytska.[1]

Levytska was the maternal grandmother of the physicist and professor Tetyana Krushelnytska (born 1946).[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Mysko-Pasichnyk, R.E. (2016). Dziuba, I.М.; Zhukovsky, A.I.; Zhelezniak, M.H. (eds.). "Левицька Галя" [Levytska Halia]. Encyclopedia of Modern Ukraine [Online] (in Ukrainian). Kyiv: National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Shevchenko Scientific Society. Retrieved 24 February 2026.
  2. ^ a b c d "Левицька (Левицька-Крушельницька) Галина Львiвна" (in Ukrainian). Encyclopaedia of History of Ukraine.
  3. ^ a b c Zolotar, Inna. "Education and Culture: Who Was Lucky? Halyna Levytska". Інтерактивний Львів.