Hryhory Pavlovych Nazarenko (13/X/1902

Poltava Poltava (, ; uk, Полтава ) is a city located on the Vorskla River in central Ukraine. It is the capital city of the Poltava Oblast (province) and of the surrounding Poltava Raion (district) of the oblast. Poltava is administratively ...

, in the

Poltava Governorate The Poltava Governorate (russian: Полтавская губерния, Poltavskaya guberniya; ua, Полтавська Губернія, translit=Poltavska huberniia) or Poltavshchyna was a Governorate (Russia), gubernia (also called a provin ...

of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

, in present-day

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

- 1997

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

, United States) was a

bandura A bandura ( uk, банду́ра) is a Ukrainian plucked string folk instrument. It combines elements of the zither and lute and, up until the 1940s, was also often referred to by the term kobza. Early instruments (c. 1700) had 5 to 12 strings ...

player. Hryhory Nazarenko was one of the founding members of the

Poltava Bandurist Capella The Poltava Bandurist Capella was vocal-instrumental ensemble who accompanied themselves on the multi-stringed Ukrainian bandura. It was initially established in February 1925, based on a male church choir who sang in the Ukrainian Autocephalous O ...

which was established in

in 1925. He had a brilliant first

tenor A tenor is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The lo ...

voice and soon became one of the prominent soloist of the ensemble. In 1935 he was enlisted into the newly formed combined

Kiev Bandurist Capella The Kyiv Bandurist Capella ( uk, Київська капeла бандуристiв, translit=Kyivs’ka kapela banduristiv) is a male vocal-instrumental ensemble that accompanies its singing with the playing of the multi-stringed Ukrainian fo ...

where in time he became concertmaster. A number of his arrangements were recorded on record in the 1930s and he also was featured on a number of recordings as tenor soloist. In 1937 Nazarenko was slated to become artistic director of the chorus, but was sidestepped when the choice fell to Danylo Pika because of his membership in the Communist party. Nazarenko was instrumental in setting up and establishing the

Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus The Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus ( uk, Українська Капеля Бандуристів Північної Америки ім. Т. Г. Шевченка; full name: ''The Taras Shevchenko Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus of North America'') is a s ...

Kiev Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

in 1942, and was its first artistic director. Under his directorship the chorus gave a number of concerts: "The Live words of Taras Shevchenko" in Kiev, Volyn' and in outlying areas before the directorship was assumed by

Hryhory Kytasty Hryhoriy Trokhymovych Kytasty ( uk, Григорій Трохимович Китастий) (January 17, 1907 – April 6, 1984) was a Ukrainian émigré composer and conductor. In 2008, he was honored with the Hero of Ukraine state decoration. ...

. During the War in Germany together with the

Honcharenko brothers {{Unreferenced, date=March 2011 The Honcharenko Brothers—Alexander (1913–2005) and Peter (11 December 1910 – 19 September 2000)—became the dominant bandura-makers (bandura luthiers) and designers in the Ukrainian diaspora. ...

he established the Leontovych Bandurist Capella in the British zone of occupation. In the United States he continued for a brief time to be a member of the

. Nazarenko died in Detroit in 1997. His repertoire included numerous '' dumy'' (sung epic poems) which he learned from

Hnat Khotkevych Hnat Martynovych Khotkevych ( uk, Гнат Мартинович Хоткевич, also ''Gnat Khotkevich'' or ''Hnat Khotkevych'', born December 31, 1877 – died October 8, 1938) was a Ukrainian writer, ethnographer, playwright, composer, musico ...

, such the ''duma'' about the Kozak-bandurist and Storm on the Black Sea.

Students

Volodymyr Luciv Volodymyr Havrylovych Luciv (Ukrainian: Володимир Луців) was a Ukrainian bandurist and tenor. He was born 5 June, 1929 in Nadvirna, eastern Poland, now present-day Ukraine. He learned to play the bandura from Hryhory Nazarenko in the ...

Sources

*Makhynia, H. - ''Hryhoriy Pavlovych Nazarenko'' - Bandura, #43-44, 1993 {{DEFAULTSORT:Nazarenko, Hryhory Bandurists Kobzarstvo Ukrainian musicians 1997 deaths 1902 births 20th-century Ukrainian musicians Soviet emigrants to the United States