Executive Office
The common bond between the three members of OIART's executive office is a lifelong involvement with sound — inventing, shaping, capturing, composing, producing, engineering, designing it, thinking about it, and even playing with it. Attendant to this has been the desire to work with and understand the technology associated with these arts as well as sharing such knowledge with those aspiring to working with sound as a way of life.

Peter Kryshtalovich
During the decade prior to working at OIART, Dean of Academic Affairs Peter Kryshtalovich worked extensively in electroacoustic music composition, while developing a Multitrack Electronic Music studio and pursuing studies in Music Theory and Fine Art. At that time his studio was designed specifically for Electroacoustic Music and Musique Concréte productions, as well as for private instruction in music theory and analogue audio synthesis techniques.

Pete's involvement with OIART began with the school’s inaugural year (1983-84). At the invitation of the school's founder and first engineering instructor, Paul Steenhuis, he was invited to participate in the Institute's design and development. Since that time he's been involved in all aspects of the school and has held a variety of positions, including Audio Intern, Intern Coordinator, Faculty Member, Curriculum Designer/Coordinator, Registrar, Academic Counselor, Director of the Financial Aid Office and Director of Admissions, culminating with his present position, Dean of Academic Affairs and Member of the three-person Executive Office with Ken Trevenna, the Director of Operations and Paul Steenhuis, President of the school. He continued his professional work at Soundworks Recording Studios in London Canada, primarily as a synthesizer programmer, assistant engineer and composer.

Peter has played a key role in the conceptual design and implementation of the program, but particularly the following courses: Acoustics for Audio Engineers, Sound Design (Critical Listening), Audio Applications of Digital Technology, Career Management, Digital Media Perspectives, Electronic Music/Synthesis Techniques, MIDI for Audio Engineers, and Music Theory for Audio Engineers and he continues to be a guiding hand in OIART's ever-evolving curricula.

He has taught the signal processing component of the Recording Technology course and the procedure/practical application component of the ATR (Analogue Tape Recorder) Alignment Course. He also gives private tutorials and instruction in Music Theory and 20th Century art, has lectured on a wide variety of subjects, including Visual Art and Auditory Imagery, Digital Image Generation and Filtering (Photoshop), Frequency Modulation (FM) Synthesis, The Musical Use of Audio Signal Processing, as well as Audio Synthesis Techniques and Twentieth Century Harmony.

“As a curricula designer, it remains a challenge to distill thirty years of working with and thinking about sound and sound imagery into a concise, clear and articulate presentation of audio engineering ideas, practices and issues,” says Peter. "Our curricula is designed as a gestalt — as an organized whole that is more than a sum of its parts — and is organized around and informed by a central theme or theme group Moreover, each individual course is designed to support the entire curricula and serve to clarify and demystify the whole as it educates the student on the part."

In addition to his considerable administrative duties as Dean of Academic Affairs and Member of the Executive Office, Peter currently instructs the Music Theory and Sound Design courses.

Pete’s education is ongoing. Since attending OIART, he has taken graduate courses at the University of Western Ontario and Sheridan College. He certified with Digidesign as a Pro Tools Trainer in 1996, one of the first three Canadians to do so; he also authored portions of the support text in the original version of that company’s courseware. He is certified in Non-Linear Editing Techniques (both basic and advanced) and Advanced Effects Programming, as well as Photoshop Digital Effects Programming . He is or has been a Member of the following professional associations: Canadian Artists Representation Ontario, Canadian Electroacoustic Community, International Computer Music Association, and Visual Arts Ontario. He is also a founding member of the Audio Industry Advisory Council (AIAC).

His personal and professional interests also include Fine Art and hiking throughout the Colorado Plateau. Running parallel to and informing his activities with sound he works as a visual artist, using mixed media on paper and canvas, and digitally using Photoshop (since 1993). He has created an extensive body of work, with over 600 digital paintings and dozens of works in traditional media. He regards sound design and colourspace as two faces of the same muse and uses the infinite structural and colour designs of the canyons and high-desert country of the American Southwest as a fundamental source of inspiration.