Ottawowa Helena, nee Feigl, *16 February 1874 Lviv, †16 August 1948 Kraków, Polish pianist and teacher. She was educated at the L. Marek Music School and the conservatory of the Galician Musical Society in Lviv, from which she graduated in 1898 in the class of H. Melcer. In 1901/02, she completed her piano studies with Z. Stojowski in Paris. She began her concert activity under the sign of French music. She performed – often for the first time in Poland – works by C. Saint-Saëns (Piano Concerto No. 5, Łódź and Warsaw 1900), C. Franck (Symphonic Variations, Lviv 1910; poem Les djinns, Warsaw 1922) and C. Debussy (Lviv 1912). From Polish music, she included in her repertoire works by Chopin, Paderewski, Statkowski, Stojowski, Szymanowski (Sonata in C minor, Lviv 1912), Różycki and Melcer, whose Piano Concerto No. 1 she played many times, including under the composer’s direction at his jubilee concert at the Warsaw Philharmonic (1925). During World War I, she performed for charity in cities under the Russian partition and Galicia; in addition to recitals, she gave concerts with singers (mainly J. Korolewicz-Waydowa) for the benefit of the homeless, war orphans, and sick and wounded soldiers. In the interwar period, she combined her concert activities as a soloist and chamber musician (she accompanied, among others, M. Modrakowska, M. Mokrzycka, A. Didur, and violinists H. Marteau and J. Thibaud) with radio performances (since 1927) in the Warsaw, Lviv and Krakow and teaching work; founded her music school in Lviv, operating in 1902–14 and maintaining a high level of teaching thanks to the management of H. Melcer and the teaching team, which included, among others, S. Niewiadomski, W. Kochański and Ottawa itself. In 1921–39, she was a piano professor at the conservatory of the Polish Musical Society in Lviv. In 1945, she took over the piano class at the State Higher School of Music in Kraków. In 1946, she performed for the last time at a concert at the Krakow Philharmonic as part of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of her artistic work, she performed Beethoven’s Piano Concerto in C minor and C. Franck’s Symphonic Variations. Ottawa’s students included: Z. Iszkowska, T. Jarecki, T. Sygietyński, J. Szajna-Lewandowska, and S. Skrowaczewski.
Literature: Z. Ottawa-Rogalska Lwy spod ratusza słuchają muzyki. Wspomnienia o Helenie Ottawowej, Wrocław 1987.
