Stefania Turkevych-Lukiianovych

Stefania Ivanivna Turkewich-Lukianovych (; 25 April 18988 April 1977) was a Ukrainian composer, pianist, and musicologist. She is recognized as Ukraine's first woman composer. In the USSR, her works were banned by the state authorities.

Biography Childhood Stefania Turkewich-Lukianovych was born in Lemburg, Austria-Hungary (now Lviv, Ukraine). Her grandfather, Lev Turkevich, and her father, Ivan Turkevich, were priests. Her mother, Sofia Kormoshiv, was a pianist who studied with the Polish pianist Karol Mikuli and the Czech pianist Vilém Kurz, and also accompanied the young Ukrainian soprano singer Solomiya Krushelnytska. The family was musically inclined and everyone played an instrument. Stefania played piano, harp, and harmonium. Later in life, she recalled her childhood love of music:

Studies

Turkewich began her music studies with the Ukrainian composer Vasyl Barvinsky. From 1914 to 1916, she studied the piano in Vienna with Kurz. After World War I, she studied with the Polish musicologist Adolf Chybiński at the University of Lviv, and also attended his lectures on music theory at the Lviv Conservatory.

In 1921, Turkewich studied with the music historian Guido Adler at the University of Vienna and the Austrian composer Joseph Marx at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna,

In 1930, Turkewich travelled to Prague, where she studied with the musicologist Zdeněk Nejedlý at Charles University, and with the composer Otakar Šín at the Prague Conservatory. She studied composition with the composer Vítězslav Novák at the music academy. In autumn 1933 she taught piano and became an accompanist at the Prague Conservatory. In 1934, she defended her doctoral dissertation on the topic of Ukrainian folklore in Russian operas.

She received her doctorate in musicology in 1934 from the Ukrainian Free University in Prague.

Postwar life in Britain In autumn 1946, Turkewich moved to the UK, initially living in Brighton before moving to live in London in 1951. She later lived in Barrow Gurney near Bristol from 1952 to 1962, Belfast from 1962, and Cambridge from 1973. In the late 1940s, Turkewich returned to composing. From time to time she acted again as a pianist, in particular in 1957 in a series of concerts performed for Ukrainian communities in Britain, and in 1959 at a concert of piano music in Bristol. She was a member of the British Society of Women-Composers and Musicians.

Turkewich's opera Oksana's Heart was performed in Winnipeg in 1970 at the Centennial Concert Hall, under the artistic direction of her sister Irena Turkevycz-Martynec. She continued to compose through the 1970s. She died on 8 April 1977, aged 78, in Cambridge.

Compositions StefaniaTurkewich is recognized as Ukraine's first woman composer. Her works were banned in Ukraine by the Soviet authorities.

The following is a list of compositions by Turkewich, classified by genre and type of work.

Symphonic works

Симфонія – Symphony no. 1 – 1937 Симфонія no. 2(a) – Symphony no. 2(a) – 1952 Симфонія no. 2(b) (2-гий варіант) – Symphony no. 2(b) (2nd version) Симфонієта – Symphoniette – 1956 Три Симфонічні Ескізи – Three Symphonic Sketches – 3-го травня, 1975 Симфонічна поема – Symphonic Poem «La Vitа» Space Symphony – 1972 Суіта для подвійного струнного оркестру – Suite for Double String Orchestra Fantasy for Double String Orchestra

Ballets

Руки – The Girl with the Withered Hands – Bristol, 1957 Перли – The Necklace Весна (Дитячий балет) – Spring – (Children's Ballet) 1934-5 Мавка (a) – Mavka – ‘The Nymph’ – 1964-7 – Belfast Страхопуд – Scarecrow – 1976

Opera

Мавка – Mavka – (unfinished) based on Lesia Ukrainka’s Forest Song

Children’s operas

«Цар Ох» або Серце Оксани – Tsar Okh or Heart of Oksana – 1969 «Куць» – The Young Devil «Яринний городчик» – A Vegetable Plot (1969)

Choral works

Літургія 1919 – Liturgia/Liturgy Psalm to Sheptytsky (Псалом Шептицькому) До Бою – To Battle Триптих – Triptych Колискова (А-а, котика нема) 1946 – Lullaby

Chamber – Instrumental works

Соната для скрипки і фортепіано 1935 – Sonata for violin and piano Cтрунний квартет 1960 – 1970 – String quartet Тріо для скрипки, альта і віолончела 1960 – 1970 – Trio for Violin, Viola and Cello Квінтет для двох скрипок, альта, віолончела фортепіано 1960 – 1970 – Piano Quintet Тріо для флейти, кларнету, фагота 1972 – Wind Trio

Piano works

Варіації на Українську тему 1932 – Variations on a Ukrainian Theme Фантазія: Суїта фортепянна на Українські теми – Fantasia: Suite for Piano on Ukrainian Themes 1940 Імпромпту – Impromptu 1962 Гротеск – Grotesque 1964 Гірська сюїта – Mountain Suite 1966 – 1968 Цикл п’єс для дітей – Cycle of Pieces for Children 1936 – 1946 Українські коляди та щедрівки – Ukrainian carols and Shchedrivka Вістку голосить – Good Tidings Christmas with Harlequin 1971

Miscellaneous i. – Серце – Heart – Solo voice with orchestra ii. – Лорелеї – Lorelei – Narrator, Harmonium and Piano 1919 – words by Lesia Ukrainka iii. – Май – May – 1912 iv. – Тема народної пісні – Folk Song Themes v. – На Майдані – Independence Square – piano piece vi. – Не піду до леса з конечкамі – Лемківська пісня – Lemky song for voice and strings

Discography (selected)

Violin Sonata, String Trio, Piano Quintet. Immersio Vienna and Friends. CPO Records, 2026.