Vasyl' Potapenko

V. Potapenko advertising bandura lessons in 1935

Vasyl' Potapenko (1886—1934) born in Berezna, Mensk region, Chernihiv province was the guide-boy for the kobzar Tereshko Parkhomenko. A a guide-boy he was a participant of the ХІІth Archeological congress held in Kharkiv in 1902. He travelled to Halychyna by himself after discovering that Hnat Khotkevych had invited kobzars to perform there in 1909. When he discovered that the audiences in Haychyna had expected blind bandurists, he tried to blind himself with caustic soda in his eyes. He returned to central Ukraine settling in Kyiv where he made a living teaching bandura and re-selling banduras. Many of his students made up the Kyiv Bandurist Capella in its second incarnation in 1924. He was a participant at the Xth historic-ethnographic concert held in Kyiv in 1928. He was arrested October 15, 1930 for being a member of "counter-revolutionary" organizations. There were further arrests ending in his unexplained disappearance.

Potapenko made a significant contribution to the art of playing bandura. He was one of the bandurists who cemented the use of the Chernihiv style of bandura playing in Kyiv, and in particular the drag technique used by Parkhomenko. After his arrest he was treated as a non-person and written out of the History books.

Sources

• Kudrytsky, A. V. - Mystetsvo Ukrainy - Biohrafichnyj dovidnyk - Kyiv 1997
• Ukrainians in North America, USA
• Литвин, М. – Струни золотії – “Веселка”, К.:1994 (117с.)
• Мішалов, В. і М. Українські кобзарі-бандуристи – Сідней, Австралія, 1986 - 106с.
• Самчук, У. - Живі струни - Детройт, США, 1976 (468с.)