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When 8-year-old Ivan Kytashevskyi’s family fled Kyiv just one month before the Russian invasion, arriving in South Florida with just four suitcases, they left a lot behind — grandparents, friends, and careers.
But the one thing Ivan didn’t leave behind was his love for music.
Thanks to the South Florida Youth Symphony, one of the nation’s leading youth music
organizations, Ivan continued his passion for music as part of the recently concluded 25th annual SFYS Summer Music Academy at the Miami Dade College North Campus.
Ivan received a scholarship — along with 24 other young musicians — from a Miami-Dade County Affairs grant. Several other students received grants through the Batchelor Foundation and the Nancy Friday Foundation.
The SFYS program is sponsored with the support of Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs, Miami-Dade County Mayor and County Commissioners, The Children’s Trust, Miami-Dade County Office of Management and Budget, State of Florida Division of Cultural Affairs, The Kirk Foundation, Batchelor Foundation, and Nancy Friday Foundation.
“I loved camp,” Ivan, who has an infectious smile, said through a translator. “At first I was worried because I didn’t know anyone, but I’ve made so many friends and we’ve exchanged phone numbers.”
In addition to being a stranger at the camp, language was another hurdle to overcome; Ivan and his parents, Oksana and Serhii, only speak Russian. The family arrived in the U.S. after being randomly selected in a Green Card lottery in 2021.
According to his summer teacher, Kevin Segura, an alumnus of the SFYS program, technology helped overcome the language barrier. Segura used Google Translate to convey his instructions to Ivan in English and Ivan used the same program to translate into Russian.
“At first it had its challenges,” said Segura, band director at Hialeah-Miami Lakes Senior High School and producer of the Emmy-winning SFYS virtual concert during the pandemic.
“He didn’t speak a single world of English. But, with Google Translate we didn’t miss a beat.
Eventually Ivan was making full sentences and made friends. His progress was amazing.”
And that progress was a relief to his parents who have other concerns on their minds after they settled in Hallandale.
Both sets of grandparents are still in Kyiv in occupied territory and a communications blackout has left the family in limbo.
“In the last month, there is no internet, no telephone, nothing,” said Oksana, a seamstress.
“We are very worried.”
“The last we heard, our apartment building was still standing,” added Serhii, who owned a construction company before fleeing. He now works as a handyman. “We think that Ivan’s music school is okay, but a rocket destroyed the building next to it.”
For now, the family is settling in their new life in South Florida but even though their minds are still focused on their homeland, relatives and friends they have found the time — after meeting fellow Ukrainians, Russians and sympathetic Americans through Facebook — to gather supplies to be shipped back to Ukraine.
“America is in tune with Ukraine and the Ukrainian people,” said Serhii. “We are very grateful to be able to help send food and medical supplies back home.”
Oksana added, “We just wish everyone would stop fighting, end the war and live in peace.”
For more information about the South Florida Youth Symphony, visit SFYS.net or phone 305-238-2729.
