Peter Kytasty honored by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for 40 years of service (03/23/97)

Peter Kytasty honored by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for 40 years of service

LIVONIA, Mich. - Many American workers spend their lives searching in vain for a job they can love. Peter Kytasty is one of those lucky Americans who loved his job so much that he might have postponed his retirement indefinitely.

On January 9 at an elegant luncheon hosted at the Detroit Club, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officially bid farewell to Mr. Kytasty, who served the Corps for over 40 years. Beginning his career in June of 1956, Mr. Kytasty eventually became the senior geotechnical engineer at the Corps' Detroit Office. At the January 9 luncheon, Mr. Kytasty was praised by many of his colleagues as an inspirational mentor and gifted public servant.

Born in the Poltava region of Ukraine in 1928, Mr. Kytasty fled his war-torn country in 1944 as a teenager and settled in the Detroit area with other members of the world-renowned Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus. He joined the U.S. Army in 1951. An early experience that attracted Mr. Kytasty to the Army Corps of Engineers was an assignment fighting floods on the Missouri River while he was stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas.

During his long and distinguished career, Mr. Kytasty worked to improve flood control programs and to strengthen the Army's infrastructure of dams and levees in the Great Lakes Region. In 1977 the Corps of Engineers honored Mr. Kytasty as its first "Engineer/Scientist of the Year" for his outstanding project designs. Mr. Kytasty introduced several new technologies to the Corps, including the "earth anchor" method to stabilize large structures.

In addition to his exceptional skill as a civil engineer, Mr. Kytasty also is an accomplished musician who has devoted much of his life to perpetuating the sacred and secular choral traditions of his Ukrainian homeland. Mr. Kytasty hails from a long line of "kobzari" - epic folk musicians who accompany their songs on the Ukrainian national instrument, the bandura or kobza.

Mr. Kytasty's uncle, Hryhoriy Trokhymovych Kytasty, was the musical director of the Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus for many years, and Mr. Kytasty was a leading member of the cappella, participating in over 1,200 concerts in the United States, Canada, Australia and Western Europe.

Shortly after Ukraine attained independence in 1991, Mr. Kytasty was honored by the Ukrainian government as a "Distinguished Artist of Ukraine" for his pioneering work in the promotion of Ukrainian traditional music in the United States. The Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers especially cited Mr. Kytasty for his successful efforts in developing a strong contingent of young Americans who have learned the once-forgotten art form of bandura playing.

Mr. Kytasty and his son Julian have organized numerous bandura workshops and became the co-founders of a two-week intensive music program at the All-Saints Ukrainian Orthodox Camp in Emlenton, Pa. The aim of the camp is to preserve and promote the best of Ukrainian musical culture. The camp has attracted youngsters from across the Midwest and from as far away as South Carolina, Florida, California and British Columbia. Last summer, the bandura program celebrated its 13th anniversary.

Mr. Kytasty also serves as the choirmaster and cantor at St. Mary the Protectress Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Southfield, Mich., where his family has been active in Ukrainian community life since the 1950s.

Mr. Kytasty is married to Lydia Korol Kytasty, a distinguished scholar and teacher's assistant in art history at the University of Michigan, Dearborn.

He has four children: Julian, 38, is a music teacher at St. Andrew's Ukrainian Orthodox Seminary in Winnipeg; Alex, 34, is a systems analyst and recording engineer in New York City; Irene, 30, lives in Hamden, Conn., where she and her husband, Alex Kuzma, are active in the Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund; John, 29, has taken after his father and has become a civil engineer. A graduate of the Lawrence Technical University, John is the former president of the Engineering Society and currently works for the university's engineering laboratory.

Following in their father's footsteps, all the Kytasty children have been active in Ukrainian music. Julian is widely considered to be among the finest bandura virtuosos in the United States. He recently released a CD titled "Paris to Kyiv - Variances" with the renowned Ukrainian Canadian singer Alexis Kochan. The album has been very well received by Canadian music critics and is gaining popularity in the United States.

Now that he is retiring, Mr. Kytasty is planning to spend more time on his music, providing encouragement and guidance to young musicians in the Ukrainian community and introducing the bandura to folk music lovers in the Metropolitan Detroit area and beyond. He hopes to participate in the Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus concert tour of the East Coast scheduled for next October.

At his January 9 retirement luncheon, Mr. Kytasty performed several selections on the bandura and delighted the audience with traditional Ukrainian songs and carols, which he sang accompanied by members of his family. Among these was an original composition by Hryhoriy Kytasty titled "Mavka." This was presented as a bittersweet ballad especially appropriate for retirement, as it describes a fateful encounter between an aging dreamer and a wood nymph who promises to turn the autumn of his years back into spring.

At the conclusion of the program, Mr. Kytasty's colleagues from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers presented him with plaques acknowledging the enthusiasm and light-hearted spirit he always brought to his work. The retirement was reported in an extensive article in the Livonia Observer and the Corps of Engineers' newsletter, Soundings.

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