The relevance of studying the works of Petro Potapenko, one of the leading representatives of the Ukrainian music culture of the XX century, is conditioned by the general focus of the modern humanitaristics on the creative activity of emigrants and the efforts to return their artistic heritage to the national listener.
The purpose of this paper is to define the special features of Petro Potapenko’s works in the context of development of the Ukrainian music culture of the XX century in diaspora.
The research is carried out using a set of interdisciplinary methods, including, inter alia, a method of historical reconstruction which helps reproduce the mentality and reality of that time based on fragmentary data; biographical method — for the interpretation of facts from Petro Potapenko’s life; methods of sociological research that allow to view music and performance art in interaction with social practices etc.
The results. We have studied the personal and artistic path of Petro Potapenko, Ukrainian bandurist, composer, choir conductor, member and art director of Taras Shevchenko Bandurist Chorus (1950–1964), founder of the first female bandurist ensemble in the Western diaspora called Girls’ Bandura Chorus of the Ukrainian Youth Association (1956).
Over the years of its existence (1950s–1980s), the Girls’ Bandura Chorus led by Petro Potapenko gave 59 independent concerts and 82 performances in the largest Ukrainian communities in the USA and Canada. The most prominent of them is the 1964 concert that commemorated the unveiling ceremony of Taras Shevchenko’s monument (Washington).
During many decades, bandurist ensembles conducted by Petro Potapenko had been powerful centers of Ukrainian bandura art, promoting the national music culture by giving concerts, holding topical events and performing with a Shevchenko program as well as publishing gramophonic records and albums.
The topicality. We have tried to characterize the influence of the social and cultural space and cultural and artistic environment on the formation of Petro Potapenko’s creative personality.
The practical research. We have analyzed the historical and cultural aspects of the artist’s works in the context of the abovementioned ensembles and provided academic circles with poorly known biographical facts. We have defined Petro Potapenko’s contribution to the development of the Ukrainian music culture and bandura art in the US diaspora as well as the meaning of his activity to the Ukrainian culture of the XX century on the whole.
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