8/03/2007

Yanni


Yanni (born Yiannis Chrysomallis, Greek on November 14, 1954) is a Greek keyboardist and composer. He was born in Kalamata, Greece.

Yanni is a self-taught pianist who began his musical career by giving recitals for family members. Early in his life, he was also a competitive swimmer in Greece and set a national record in the 50-meter freestyle competition. He later attended the University of Minnesota and earned a B.A. in psychology. After graduation, Yanni chose to try a career in music, although he could not read music and had no formal training. Using his own form of musical shorthand, he began writing original works.

While a student at the University of Minnesota, Yanni joined an up-and-coming local group called Chameleon, which was headed by drummer Charlie Adams.[1] Chameleon earned some modest commercial success touring throughout the Midwest, particularly in the states of Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois and South Dakota. Eventually, Yanni grew tired of the rock and roll lifestyle and focused solely on his instrumental career as a soloist. He moved to Los Angeles and eventually formed a small band including Charlie Adams and John Tesh.

Dare to Dream was released in 1992. It was Yanni's first Grammy-nominated album and featured "Aria", a song popularized by an award-winning British Airways commercial. A second Grammy-nominated album, In My Time, was released in 1993.

See his concert on the concert bar above

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Photo from Yanni.com

Yanni radio

Yanni website

1 comment:

ANGELA said...

Hi, great site. I Love Yanni`s music. Yanni is a musical genius! I go to his site yanni.com, and the other day I found out he is working with Ric Wake now. There was a video to watch, and they announced they would have new updates every two weeks. Its nice to know Yanni is back, I am looking forward to see what music he brings to us this time.
YST, Angela