Kalichi was born in Yonkers, New York in 1950. He was deeply influenced by the spirit and politics of the 1960's. In 1978 he took a one way ticket to Ireland and has been a resident here ever since.

"I left America, having spent the previous eight years as an anti-war activist. As a young man of seventeen in 1967, I remember marching in my first peace rally in New York City. Those events and times changed the direction of my life."

While living in Ireland, Kalichi has worked in performance contexts, education, prison, health, and religious institutions. He directed and performed in six original dance plays with Liberation Dance Workshop, which he formed in Dublin in 1979. He has also been teaching Tai Chi since 1976 and is the author of Dance, Words & Soul: Ways of Moving with Change.

"When I first came to Ireland, I arrived with a guitar, a backpack full of books and a few songs which I had written and performed back in New Haven, Connecticut where I had lived. Over these many years I continued to play the guitar and write songs. But it took another 25 years before I performed my songs and music in public again."

"My 'coming out' again as a songwriter and musician was in March 2003, the first night of the infamous 'shock and awe' bombing of Baghdad. It seemed a fitting night to start singing again."

Kalichi's debut album, Time for the Turning, released in Ireland on Blue Horse Records is available on Itunes.