Yosyp Mykolaiovych Panasenko (31 March 1889 - 7 September 1965) was a member of the Poltava Bandura Bandura Choir from 1925-34. He was a first tenor soloist. After the authorities liquidated the Poltava Bandura Choir in 1934, he moved to Kyiv (1934), and for a short time some members of the choir were attached to the choir under the direction of Nestor Horodovenko (the Dumka Choir).
In October 1935, he became a member of the United Bandura Choir under the direction of M. Mykhailov, where he worked as a soloist until the outbreak of the Second World War. As a tenor, the soloist recorded a number of pieces on discs accompanied by the bandura band.
From 1935-41, he was a soloist of the Kyiv State Bandura Choir. Since 1942, he was an artist of the Taras Shevchenko Ukrainian Bandura Band in Detroit. He died in Detroit on 07.09.1965.
He was a leading soloist and a wonderful bandura player, whose lyrical and dramatic tenor is one of the golden voices of the Capella. It was he who sang the heroics of the chapel programme: "March Ukraine", "The Grey-haired Cuckoo", etc. As a person, he was extremely noble and intelligent. He is infinitely devoted to the Kobzar cause. When he got a job at a factory in Detroit, four fingers of his left hand were cut off on a machine. And the Kharkiv method of playing requires both hands. He did not give up the chapel. He was able to adapt to win his part with his right hand and participated in all the activities of the Capella without interruption, such as a tour to Europe in 1958, etc.
For a long time, he was a member of the Capella's artistic council and its board (secretary). He left his valuable memoirs "To the history of the development of the Bandura Capella...", which were published in the magazine "Visti" (Minneapolis, USA, 1963), and later almost completely included in the book "Zhyvi Struny" by Ulas Samchuk. As an eyewitness and participant, he describes in detail and in an interesting way the history of the Poltava Bandura Chapel from 1925 onwards. His memoirs contain interesting references to his collaboration with Hnat Khotkevych and his attempts to secure the status of a state chapel, which happened later after the merger of the Poltava and Kyiv chapels in 1935. However, he was a convinced apologist for considering 1918 and the Kobzar Choir as the beginning of the Ukrainian Bandura Choir named after Taras Shevchenko.
He went into exile with his wife Olha Oleksandrivna, whose daughter Ala he adopted. They had two granddaughters.
On the gravestone (Evergreen Cemetery, Detroit) are engraved the notes and words of his most famous song "By the Blue Sea" (from the song "Cuckoo and the Grey Cuckoo").
