Olha-Oleksandra Bazhanska-Ozarkevych

Olha-Oleksandra Porfyrivna Bazhanska-Ozarkevych ( Bazhanska; 30 December 1866 - 15 July 1906) was a Ukrainian pianist, folklorist, writer, and public figure. Pen names Oksana and Olesya B.

Early life and education Olha-Oleksandra Porfyrivna Bazhanska was born on 30 December 1866, in Lviv in the family of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church priest, composer, musicologist, writer, and folklorist Porfyriy Bazhanskyi. She studied music with her father and with Ivan Gunevich in Lviv. In 1885, she graduated from the Lviv Teachers' Seminary.

Career Music After the graduation, Bazhanska taught to play the piano in the village of Soroky (now Soroky-Lvivski, Pustomytiv district, Lviv region) and in the city of Horodok (now Lviv region).

Bazhanska-Ozarkevych took an active part in the women's movement. In 1891, she became one of the organizers of the "Boyan" musical and choral society in Lviv.

From 1892–1900, she performed as a pianist in concerts of the "Boyan" society dedicated to Taras Shevchenko and Markiyan Shashkevych. She accompanied the singers Solomiya Krushelnytska (1892, 1894, Oy Lyuli, Lyuli and Oh Moon, Moonlight by Mykola Lysenko, In the Grove, Grove by Denys Sichynskyi), Maria Pavlykiv, Ivan Skalisha, and others at concerts in Lviv. She translated the works of the Polish writer Władysław Orkan (the stories Evenings, Distrust, Yasna Polyana, Over Bird). In 1893, Bazhanska-Ozarkevych had her second daughter, Natalia, who died soon after the birth. In 1895, she gave birth to her son Ivan.

Commemoration Composer Ostap Nyzhankivskyi dedicated his work Over the Lake (1894) to Bazhanska-Ozarkevych.