Ukrainian ethnographer, singer, musician. Member of the Literary and Artistic Society in Kyiv. Grandson of the writer Petro Hulak-Artemovsky.
Biography.
He was born in 1861 in the village of Moskalenky (now Obukhiv district, Kyiv region) in the family of a priest. In 1877 he graduated from the seminary and was a priest until 1884. He moved to St. Petersburg, where he organized a Ukrainian choir of soldiers and officials. He was noticed by Mykola Lysenko and invited to enter the Kyiv Music School. While studying, he worked as a clerk at the Southwestern Railroad Administration in Kyiv. He was the head of Mykola Lysenko's choir, in which he sang since 1890, and held parties, organizing the social life of the national intelligentsia.
In 1888, when he visited Taras Shevchenko's grave in Kaniv for the first time, he became interested in the idea of landscaping the surrounding area. In fact, it was Yakiv Petrovych who came up with the idea of creating a nature reserve on Chernecha Hill. Thanks to his efforts, the area adjacent to the grave was enlarged, 8,000 trees were planted, a fence was installed, and steps were built. Together with Volodymyr Naumenko, Mykola Lysenko, and Ivan Nechuy-Levytskyi, he initiated fundraising for the maintenance of the poet's grave and the creation of a museum at it. After the death of the caretaker of Kobzar's grave in 1901, Yakiv Petrovych moved to Kaniv, where he took up this position. He came up with the idea to create a book for visitors to the Great Kobzar's grave.
He was repeatedly arrested and served his sentence in prisons in Nizhyn, Novozybkiv (now Bryansk Oblast, Russia), and Kyiv, including on September 24, 1905, for possession of illegal literature. He was friends with Olena Pchilka, Lesia Ukrainka, Kyrylo Stetsenko, Oleksandr Koshyts, and the family of Borys Hrinchenko.
In 1906, he moved to the village of Nemishaieve, Kyiv province, and in the same year organized choirs of students in the villages of Nemishaieve and Mykulych. In 1920, he served as an authorized representative of the Nemishaieve village council. He organized the cultural life of the village by organizing musical evenings.
He died on August 3, 1939. He was buried in the old cemetery in Mykulychi.
Legacy.
After his death, he left memories of Mykola Lysenko, published in the book "Living Pages of Ukrainian Music", published by the Kyiv publishing house "Naukova Dumka" in 1965.
