Master reconstructor and researcher of Ukrainian musical instruments.
He studied at the Kyiv Railway Electrical College (1938), Kyiv Music School, and graduated from the Kyiv Conservatory with a degree in guitar and conducting. in 1952, he trained more than 60 music specialists.
Folk instruments
In the late 50s, M. Prokopenko was engaged in the revival of the ladka kobza. He made several variants of the kobza, including a modern 7-stringed one and a family of orchestral kobzas based on ethnography. Samples of the revived kobzas are used in the orchestra of folk instruments, in the bandura band of the National Music Academy of Ukraine, as well as in the radio and television orchestra, the State Orchestra of Folk Instruments of Ukraine, and in amateur groups. M. Prokopenko's inventions are registered by copyright #6037 dated 2.VI.1975.
Since 1974, orchestral kobzas of M. Prokopenko's design have been produced by Melnytsia-Podilska music workshops.
In 1959, M. Prokopenko designed and manufactured a bandura model with a single-row chromatic soundboard without switches and free two-way access to all strings, like a harp. An experimental sample was presented to bandura players, but it did not find practical application because it required a different school of playing.
Works
Organizational and methodological foundations of the folk instruments orchestra at school (1970)
Construction, storage and repair of folk musical instruments - M. 1977
Fundamentals of designing stringed folk instruments (unpublished)
In the footsteps of musical instruments (unpublished)
