Parkhomenko, Terentii

Parkhomenko, Terentii [Parxomenko, Terentij], b 28 October 1872 in Voloskivtsi, Sosnytsia county, Chernihiv gubernia, d 23 March 1910 in Voloskivtsi. (Photo: Terentii Parkhomenko.) Kobzar. Having lost his sight at 10 he studied the kobza under A. Hoidenko and others and then for five years wandered with Hoidenko through Ukraine. At 30 he began to teach the kobza. Some of his students (Petro Tkachenko-Halashko, Serdiuk-Pereliub, and Avram Hrebin) became noted folk singers. He corresponded with Mykola Lysenko, Opanas Slastion, Oleksander Malynka, Mikhail Speransky, Lesia Ukrainka, Ivan Franko, and Volodymyr Hnatiuk. In 1902 he performed for the 12th Archeological Congress in Kharkiv and was invited to appear in Lviv and Drohobych. He gave concerts in Kyiv, Poltava, Nizhyn, Mohyliv-Podilskyi, Uman, Vinnytsia, Yelysavethrad, and Warsaw. His repertoire included dumas, historical songs, psalms, lyrical songs, and satires. Because his songs awakened national consciousness among the peasants, he was harassed by the authorities. He died as a result of a police beating.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]