Scoring big in Hollywood

PAUL LAMBIS meets the Cypriot musician creating a film’s soul by scoring works for Disney and beyond

George Kallis is a multi-award-winning Cypriot film composer with an impressive list of credits. His scores have earned him well-deserved recognition as a prominent Hollywood composer, having won the Jerry Goldsmith Award and the International Film Music Critics Award.

George’s satisfaction in his chosen profession is apparent now, despite his own rigorous self-criticism, and it continues to provide him fresh creative opportunities, not least with movie giant Disney.

“I grew up in a very rich musical environment,” Kallis told Living. “My grandfather played the violin, and my mother sings opera, so I learned to appreciate all kinds of music as a child.”

His budding talent for composing was noticed by teachers Eric Hellicar and Maro Polydorou during his studies at Nicosia’s English School, who encouraged him to score original music for the school plays.

After representing Cyprus at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1999 as a songwriter, he studied film composition at Berklee College of Music, and furthered his studies with a master’s degrees in composition at London’s Royal College of Music. During those years, he took a film scoring class and met renowned music supervisor and producer Graham Walker, which catapulted him onto his present successful professional trajectory. “He loved my music, and he gave me the opportunity to compose the music for one of the scenes in his films,” George said. “Meeting Graham was one of the most pivotal moments in my career.”

Disney’s first instalment for the live-action fantasy, The Last Warrior, earned George a Jerry Goldsmith Award for Best Music for a Feature Film. Collaborating with Disney, George said, was another key milestone in his career as a film composer. “It was a surreal moment when I sat in front of my computer and gazed directly at the Disney logo on the screen, realising that I was a part of their amazing and innovative journey.”

His other fantasy scoring work includes Albion: The Enchanted Stallion starring John Cleese, Debra Messing and Jennifer Morrison, which earned him the Breakthrough Composer of the Year award at the International Film Music Critics Awards.

George has recently completed the score for First Love, a film starring Diane Kruger and Hero Fiennes Tiffin that will be released in the summer. He has also taken over scoring duties for the extremely popular After film franchise, beginning with Castille Landon’s After We Fell and the upcoming After Ever Happy, which will be released in theatres this September. After Our Dawn, George’s title song, debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard Lyric charts in September 2021.

George embeds diverse sounds within his consciousness as part of his working process, saving them for when the proper moment arises. “These influences somehow magically appear between the pen and the fingers that compose the song.

“I focus on thematic music, and enjoy writing melodies in particular,” George said. “I always see the music as another character in a film. Whether it is only one cue used throughout the movie, or whether it is scored wall to wall. I would like the music to have an impact.”

He previously composed the score for Walt Disney’s box office blockbuster The Last Warrior: The Root of Evil, with the soundtrack distributed internationally. George’s score for the biopic sports drama Lev Yashin: The Dream Goalkeeper has won him a reputation for producing proud thematic material that is both intimate and poignant.

He was also asked to compose the film score to the highly successful historical drama Cliffs of Freedom, a timeless and romantic story of bravery and faith between a Greek village girl and a Turkish Ottoman colonel during the dawn of the Greek War for Independence. The title song, I’ll Wait For You, received award nominations at the Hollywood Music in Media Awards.

With an endless list of credits and nominations under his belt, George continues to write scores for award-winning films, including music for top commercial brands and trailers. “If I had to sum it up in a single word, I would say music is a film’s soul.”

George Kallis has certainly left an indelible music mark in the land of dreams, scoring big in Hollywood, proving that he has an infinite gift for melody.