Chris Kelmi
Chris Kelmi was a Soviet and Russian singer, rock musician, and composer. He founded the bands Leap Year and Rock Atelier and was a member of Autograph. He wrote music for more than 200 songs, including “Closing the Circle,” “I Believe,” “Tired Taxi,” “Night Rendezvous,” and “Santa Claus.”
Born in Moscow on April 21, 1955, Kelmi began playing piano and guitar at the age of four. He studied piano at the I. O. Dunaevsky Moscow Children’s Music School, graduating in 1969. He also played competitive tennis and was a candidate for Master of Sport.
Kelmi graduated in 1977 from the Moscow Institute of Railway Transport Engineers, where he studied bridges and tunnels, and continued there in postgraduate study until 1980. In 1983, he entered the Gnesin State Music College’s popular music department and earned a piano diploma.
In 1970, Kelmi founded the amateur band Sadko. Two years later, he and guitarist Alexander Sitkovetsky formed Leap Year, where Kelmi initially played bass guitar and sang before moving to keyboards. The band performed songs by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. In 1979, Kelmi and Sitkovetsky formed Autograph; with the group, Kelmi took part in the Tbilisi-80 rock festival, where it placed second.
In 1980, Kelmi formed Rock Atelier at the initiative of Mark Zakharov, artistic director of the Lenin Komsomol Moscow State Theatre. Kelmi and the band worked at the theatre until 1987, contributing to productions including the rock opera Juno and Avos and a new musical arrangement for The Star and Death of Joaquin Murieta. The ensemble was credited with the music for the animated film The Dog in Boots.
Rock Atelier began working independently in 1989. Kelmi’s song “Night Rendezvous” was written and performed that year, and his solo career began in 1990. In 1987, he assembled 27 musicians to record “Closing the Circle”; similar collaborative recordings followed with “I Believe” in 1990 and “Russia, Arise!” in 1994. In 1990, MTV invited him to Atlanta to record a concert set, and the music video for “Old Wolf,” released in 1993, found success on the eastern coast of the United States. In 2007, he recorded a new version of “Closing the Circle” with some of the original performers.
Kelmi died on January 1, 2019, at his home in Novoglagolevo, aged 63.