Cypriot composer to score film on Yuri Gagarin

Cypriot composer George Kallis has been commissioned to score the music for the multi-million dollar film Gagarin: First in Space that explores the life of Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.

Kallis, who will be working on this project for the next two months, will record with the Russian State Symphony Orchestra and Choir in December.

“It is an honour for me to be involved in a production which is essentially about the life of a modern hero in Russia,” Kallis said.

Yuri Gagarin was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut and was the first human to journey into space. The biopic, directed by Pavel Parkhomenko and produced by Kremlin Films’ Oleg Kapanets, traces the initial steps of Gagarin’s space exploration and leads up to his fatal final flight in 1968.

Kallis was involved with music from a young age. He studied classical piano and violin while growing up in Cyprus and at 18 was awarded a scholarship to the renowned Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he graduated with a BM in Composition and Film scoring. He then went on to study with acclaimed British composer Joseph Horowitz at the Royal College of Music where he graduated with a Masters of Music in Composition.

He has composed music for a number of films including Highlander the Source, Screwed and Joy Division. He composed the score of the opening titles for the BAFTA and EMMY awarded BBC 2 series Horizon, the Discovery Channel Gangs in Prison documentary series and a number of TV spots including McDonald’s US campaign for McDonald’s Earth’s Treasure.