Kolessa, Filaret

Born July 5 (17), 1871, in the village of Khodovichi, in present-day Stryi Raion, L’vov Oblast; died Mar. 3, 1947, in L’vov. Soviet musicologist, folklorist, composer, and literary critic. Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR (1929).

From 1898 to 1929, Kolessa taught in Gymnasiums in L’vov, Stryi, and Sambor. In 1939 he became professor and director of the subdepartment of Ukrainian folklore and ethnology at the I. Franko University of L’vov. Beginning in 1940, Kolessa also served as the director of the L’vov branch of the Institute of Art Studies, Folklore, and Ethnology of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR. He wrote scholarly works on Ukrainian and Slavic musical folklore. Kolessa also compiled collections of arrangements of Ukrainian folk songs, his own choral compositions, and other works. His numerous works constitute an important contribution to the study of Ukrainian folklore. A deputy to the second convocation of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.