Tsipanovska, Olha

Tsipanovska, Olha [Ціпановська, Ольга; Cipanovs'ka, Ol'ha], b 18 December 1866 in Kozova, Dolyna county, Galicia, d 10 December 1941 in Lviv. Civic activist, pianist, and educator. After graduating from a teachers' seminary in Peremyshl she taught at a girls’ school (1880–92) and at the women teachers' seminary in Peremyshl (1892–1925). She founded a Ukrainian teachers' seminary at the Ukrainian Girls' Institute in Peremyshl (1920), a seamstress school, and a domestic school (1932) in Peremyshl. She gave piano recitals in Peremyshl, Lviv, Jarosław, and Vienna and was renowned for her rendition of Mykola Lysenko’s music. She was a founder and the first conductor of the Boian chorus in Peremyshl (1904–5) and the founder of the local branch of the Lysenko Higher Institute of Music, which she also directed (1925–32). She was active in the Union of Ukrainian Women. She taught piano, solo and choir singing, and conducting. She was also known for her charitable work. She died of typhus, which she contracted while caring for former inmates of German prisoner of war camps.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]