Petro Tkachenko

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Petro Fedorovych Tkachenko

(21/12/1878-3/1/1919)

Petro Fedorovych Tkachenko-Halashko was one of the more outstanding kobzars of the Chernihiv region. He was born in December 21, 1878 in the village of Syniavtsi, Sosnytsia county. At the age of 9 he became very sick and as a consequence became blind. At the age of 16 he began taking lessons from the kobzar Andriy Hayduk (Haydenko) but after a short period of time transferred over to Tereshko Parkhomenko under whom he studied for 3 years. (Kornievsky states 2 years and that he was partially sighted).

Tkachenko's repertoire consisted mainly of songs. Slastion wrote in 1906 that he knew three dumy:

1) - About the brother and sister, 2) - About the widow and her three sons 3) - Captives Lament.

These dumy were performed rarely and as a consequence many musicologists state that he did not know any dumy at all.

Regarding his bandura technique, he played quite well. His voice was not of the most exciting, however he sang with passion and was able to move the listener.

Petro Tkachenko traveled considerably performing in the cities of Chernihiv, Nizhyn, Konotop, Kharkiv, Poltava, Lokhvytsia, Pryluky, Pryiatyn, Kremenchuk, Mykolaiyiv and others. In 1905 he lived for two months in the home of the director of the Katerynoslav Historic Museum - academic Dmytro Yavornytsky, playing for the visitors of the museum, as an illustration for public lectures by this eminent historian.