Petro Avramovych Potapenko (* 24 October 1914, Berezivka village, now Zhytomyr region - † 13 April 1999, Detroit, USA) was a Ukrainian bandura player and choral conductor. He was born on 5 October according to the Julian calendar or 18 October according to the Gregorian calendar in 1914 (source: State Archives of Zhytomyr Oblast, fond 1, inventory 77, sleep 1714, pp. 264 reverse).
He was born in the village of Berezivka, Zhytomyr region.
He attended the Kyiv Conservatory from 1937-41, where he studied choral conducting (class of H. Veriovka) and bandura (class of M. Opryshka). He led the Red Army Bandura Choir, and since 1939 the Women's Bandura Choir. In 1942, he became a member of the Taras Shevchenko Ukrainian Bandura Band and emigrated to the United States with the band; in 1949, he was a member of the Ukrainian Bandura Band. From 1960-62 he was the artistic director.
In 1958, he created the Bandura Girls' Chapel at the SUMA branch in Detroit. He recorded several phonographic discs.
He was the conductor of the Taras Shevchenko Bandura Choir (1959 - 1962, 1965), a long-time deputy conductor of this choir, the founder (1956) and artistic director for more than thirty years of the Women's Bandura Ensemble at SUMA in Detroit.
He became interested in bandura in childhood. He graduated from the Kyiv Conservatory, Department of Conducting, where he was taught by the famous professors Hryhoriy Veriovka and Hryhoriy Kompaniets and where he began to attend bandura classes. In the 1930s, he formed a quartet of bandura singers, which he led and which performed at venues planned by his superiors. He joined the Shevchenko Chapel in August 1942 before leaving for Germany and remained with it with some interruptions until the end of his life.
In 1945, at the beginning of a new stage in the history of the Chapel, he was elected chairman of the Chapel's board. In 1956, he organised the Women's Bandura Ensemble at the Pylyp Orlyk SUMA branch, which was very popular in the USA and Canada. In 1959, Potapenko agreed to become the conductor of the Capella (this happened during a difficult period of powerlessness, when both Hryhoriy Kitastyi and Bozhyk left the Capella) and performed well, giving 38 concerts in 1961 during a three-month Shevchenko tour of America and Canada. At the same time, the Capella recorded the gramophone disc The Word of Taras under his baton. Petro Potapenko resumed his duties as conductor from time to time later.
After the Capella's tour to Ukraine in 1991, inspired by these visits, he compiled a collection of works by Ukrainian composers and folk songs, some of which he arranged. This collection, entitled "Under the Silver Ring of Banduras", was addressed to bandura ensembles and published in Kyiv by the Musical Ukraine publishing house in 1993.
He was married. He had three children - Borys, Vira and Viktor - from his second marriage to Kateryna Lytvyshko. All children have been and are actively involved in the artistic and social life of the Ukrainian community. Vasyl, Potapenko's son from his first marriage, lives in Ukraine.
Petro Potapenko is buried in Detroit at Woodlawn Cemetery, where his monument is engraved with a bandura and the words: "Love Ukraine, love it with all your heart".
