Julian Kytasty

Who is Julian Kytasty?

Julian Kytasty is an American composer, singer, kobzar, bandurist, flute player and conductor of Ukrainian descent. He was born January 23, 1958 in Detroit, Michigan, in the family of refugees.

His first studies were in the Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus, in which his father, uncles and grandfather played in and conducted before him. He has been a resident of New York since 1980. He moved there to found the New York Bandura Ensemble, and began a career as a solo artist and bandura teacher that has taken him all over the world, from the Inuit lands to Patagonia. In 1989 he was invited to tour Ukraine, performing over a hundred concerts as a soloist as well as with a bandura ensemble.

Julian Kytasty holds a Masters degree in music from Concordia University in Montreal. He is the author of original compositions and arrangements that have entered the standard repertoire of bandurists around the world. He has been described as "the finest representative of the kobzar tradition in the Western Hemisphere".