Hryhory Kytasty

With the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, the Kyiv State Bandurist Capella was disbanded and its members were mobilized to the front.

Because of the brutal manner in which Ukrainian artists were treated under the Stalinist regime, and the fact that many bandurists had suffered directly or had witnessed unfounded reprisals under the Soviet regime, the Chorus as a group decided not to return to Soviet Ukraine and in 1949 emigrated as a group to the United States.

Upon returning to the United States, Kytasty left the Chorus and moved to San Diego and continued composing.

In 1967 he returned to the Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus as conductor and music director, a post he held until his untimely death in 1984 due to cancer.

H. Kytasty is buried at a large Ukrainian Orthodox cemetery behind St. Andrew's Memorial Church in South Bound Brook, New Jersey.

In his third period, when it became apparent that the Soviet Union would not flounder soon, his compositions became more subtle and lyrical and reflected a longing for his homeland.

Kytasty's arrangement of the Ukrainian folk song "A mij mylyj umer" was recorded by the Kyiv State Bandurist Chorus and released in 1937 (#5168).

Before World War II Kytasty recorded as a member of a bandura quintet an instrumental Polka with D. Pika, V. Savchenko, S. Minialo, and O. Kostetsky.