COVID-19 isn’t stopping a Calgary senior from sharing the gift of music — and the pandemic is just the latest in a long line of challenges Tony Maksymetz has faced while crafting his creations.
Maksymtetz recently completed work on one of his handcrafted dulcimers, the 24th of the stringed instruments he’s made, while carrying on a family tradition.
“This is actually a Ukrainian instrument,” Maksymetz said. “My granddad and my dad, they were building them and I took it over from them.”
Maksymetz grew up on the family farm in Manitoba, heading west to a new life.
“I came to Calgary in 1951 and I’ve been here ever since.”
Maksymetz built a career as a carpenter, raising a family that now includes seven grandchildren and two great grandchildren.
“They’ve got these (dulcimers),” he said. “I made them for them.”
Maksymetz has also sold his dulcimers to musicians all over Western Canada, and played in a band himself for several years, while battling back after a serious setback.
“It was an outbreak of polio when I was 17 years old,” Maksymetz said. “Eleven months and six days I was in the iron lung and all I had was a head sticking out.”
He’s also had a heart attack and several cancer surgeries, and since March 2020 has faced the risks of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I was (tested) five different times — no COVID at all,” Maksymetz said.
He’s now getting set to celebrate a birthday on Aug. 26.
“I’ll be 91. And I feel great.”
He says his love of making dulcimers is keeping him young.
“If I didn’t build these instruments, I’d be lost,” Maksymetz said. “But I keep going, I never sit still.”