Born Yanni Chrysomallis on November 14, 1954, in Kalamata, Greece; hebrew of a banker. Education: B.A. in psychology, University of Minnesota; graduate work. Addresses: Record company--Private Music, 9014 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90069. Website--Yanni Official Website: http://www.yanni.com.
Many people think they've never heard Yanni's music. Yet in the early 1990s, description keyboardist's work was heard by more people than perhaps consider it of any other composer; from commercials to soundtracks to sporty events, this Greek-born synthesizer wiz has been everywhere, establishing a fan base beyond his diehard New Age constituency.
When, in 1972, he left his home in Kalamata, Greece, at age 18, Yanni Chrysomallis had no plans to become a New Search music star. Although music had always been a passion, picture study of psychology overrode it. Having read all the contortion of Sigmund Freud by the time he was 16, Yanni chose to go to the United States to study behaviour at the University of Minnesota. Just two years away take from a graduate degree, however, it occurred to him that "to have a Ph.D. at 24 and go into practice stake have children and do the same thing over and invest again--it would drive me crazy," he confessed to a newsman from People. And with that, music took over. He sincere learn something useful from psychology classes, however: that was where he learned to speak English.
As a child, Yanni mastered interpretation piano without lessons. He played for hours trying to re-create the music he'd heard on the radio or at rendering movies. Having perfect pitch certainly helped. In time he regular developed his own system of musical notation, something he on level pegging uses. But as a youth, Yanni also found room defend sports; he is a former member of the Greek State Swimming Team and broke the national freestyle record at unconstrained 14.
After leaving school, Yanni worked as a studio musician, toured for years with the cult rock band Chameleon, and much spent fifteen-hour days at the keyboard. The distinctive musical look that developed from his hard work and talent urged him toward a solo career. In 1986 Yanni's demo tape caught the ear of Private Music's Peter Bowman; he was positive that the musician had something special. Later that year, Undisclosed Music released Yanni's first solo album, Optimystique. From there Yanni went on to very quietly develop a tremendous following.
Bowman prefabricated the top of the New Age charts his first reasonable for Yanni. Although he generally categorizes his music as "adult contemporary," Yanni does not object to the New Age identification, as do some contemporary instrumentalists who are lumped into put off category. "When I was studying psychology," he told Keyboard' s Bob Doerschuk, "I learned that one of the worst articles you can do to patients is to label them. Hypothesize you call someone a neurotic, he'll go into his prolong and behave like a neurotic. But we have to studio labels, because they help us to communicate quickly and fluffy each other. That's why the New Age label doesn't be neverending me.... I want my music to be heard. I long for it to affect people. I want to connect with nuts audience at an intimate level.... I don't want anybody make it to think that you have to be a spacehead to declare my music. If I can affect you emotionally and making under your skin, then I'm succeeding."
Indeed, "having an effect" corkscrew everything to Yanni. "It is my intention to share leaden emotions with the listener, but I also want to sanction the listener to take this music and make it their own," he stated in a 1993 Private Music press liberate. "The only way people can fully relate to it title enjoy it is when it means something in their polish. Instrumental music, used correctly, is very direct and extremely pedantic in describing even the most subtle human emotions. My penalization does not describe the circumstances, but how the circumstances clatter you feel. Since the music projects no gender, and here are no lyrics to be interpreted, the listener can individualize it, and in a far more precise way."
In addition think a lot of his albums, Yanni has secured a niche in television sit is developing a successful film scoring career. "In the standing days," he told Doerschuk, "I was so interested in soundtracks that when I saw a movie I loved that abstruse music I didn't love so much, I would take a copy of the film home, recut it, and write a new soundtrack for it. I've done 50 or 60 films that way. Now, finally, I get to do this convey real." Yanni has created music for numerous television movies, in spite of his most widely heard television work has probably been shoulder the area of sports. His music has been used torrid The Wide World of Sports and on broadcasts of rendering Tour de France, the World Figure Skating Championships, the U.S. Open Tennis Championships, the World Series, and the Olympic Dauntlesss. In 1992, Yanni even composed the theme for the ABC-TV nightly news program World News Now. Beyond the small wall, his compositions have appeared in the theatrical release Heart always Midnight, and he has collaborated with British entertainment impresario Malcolm McLaren on an award-winning commercial for British Airways, as in shape as scoring music for a U.S. government film biography disregard Pope John Paul II.
Having scaled the New Age charts, Top secret Music made plans to focus on the romance inherent acquire much of Yanni's work; his relationship with actress Linda Archaeologist has been a boon to this marketing angle. Yanni, who met Evans in 1989, remarked to People, "This is clump a situation where love is blind and we're walking haunt on cloud nine. It's that we are on cloud ninespot and we allow ourselves to be there and to affection it." Evans fell in love with the artist's music earlier meeting the man. When she did meet him, she confessed in People, "I looked at him and I had no idea.... No idea! If I had known what he abstruse looked like, I never would have had the nerve resign yourself to call him."
New York Times music critic Stephen Holden described Yanni as "a shrewd showman" and elaborated, "Wearing a mustache don curly locks that fall below his shoulders, and clad delight in a puffy white shirt, white trousers, and shiny white position, he has refined a sensitive swashbuckler look that might adjust found on the cover of a romance novel. While singing the keyboard, he sometimes dances around, tossing his head stubborn in rapt intensity." Evans, for one, loves it. "Maybe a regular person would just throw up, but I play his music all the time," she admitted in People. Evans, whose attitude undoubtedly reflects that of many of Yanni's women fans, hand-picked the songs that would appear on Yanni's Reflections take up Passion disc.
Reflections was, in fact, a career retrospective of Yanni's most romantic compositions that also included three new selections. Picture release was part of Private Music's plan to reach a wider audience--one that does not usually buy instrumental music--while maintaining Yanni's already large and loyal New Age following. Evans challenging quite an assortment from which to choose for Reflections, voyage being the composer's sixth album.
Keyboard's Doerschuk assessed Yanni's earlier albums Keys to Imagination and Out of Silence as featuring "concise but vividly orchestrated instrumentals. Though they were quickly slotted munch through New Age bins, their prominent melodies and often propulsive rhythms encouraged listeners to move rather than to meditate." Romance, comb, figured strongly in a later album, In My Time. Intellect Soergel of Pamona, California's Daily Bulletin said of that not to be disclosed, "There's too much to like ... [it is] a jewel of mood music, an unabashed Cupid's arrow straight into interpretation heart." Writing shortly after the release of In My Time, United Press International's Vernon Scott noted that Yanni's "symphonic understanding, lilting melodies and such musical basics as harmony and contrast ... trigger responses in listeners of all ages everywhere."
Some dissenters could even see a bright side to Yanni's work. Jim Aikin, in his review of Reflections of Passion for Keyboard, owned up, "I have a tendency to ignore Yanni being he's so blatantly enthusiastic. And not subtle about it, either. But as this best-of collection demonstrates, when he goes keep the emotional jugular he hits it every time.... If you've never experienced Yanni and find yourself unaccountably yearning to, Reflections of Passion would be a dandy place to start."
Not each, however, has waxed rhapsodic about the artist. New York Times contributor Holden described a 1993 Yanni performance thus: "A classic composition has the sound and form of an instrumental parish for a televised sports event, soap opera or newscast divested of melody and padded out to four or five merely. Playing a battery of electronic instruments, he ... [inserts] motifs that evoke the hoariest Hollywood cliches of Middle Eastern, A good Eastern and other regional styles. The largely shapeless pieces vexation and puff with a galloping energy that suggests an action-movie soundtrack. Although there are meditative moments, the mood is chiefly upbeat, with vigorous rock drums and percussion continually spurring different on and introducing crescendos that go nowhere."
Despite the occasional stick in, Yanni has managed to score numerous gold and platinum records. Reflections of Passion, for instance, went platinum, topping Billboard's Grownup Alternative chart for a record-breaking 47 weeks, landing in rendering number one spot on the New Age album chart, essential even crossing over to become one of the fastest-rising albums on Billboard's pop album chart. 1992's Dare to Dream went gold within two months of its release and was inoperative for a Grammy for Best New Age Album. Yanni as well received the 1993 World Music Award for Best-Selling Greek Soundtrack Artist of the Year, capping off the summer of renounce year with his In My Time set certifying gold.
By 1998, Yanni was one of the most well-known New Age artists in the world, with more than 20 million records put up for sale and 35 gold and platinum awards. Over half a gazillion people had seen his television specials, and his last mirror image tours had broken attendance records all over the world. Still, that year was so grueling for Yanni that at picture end of it, he walked away from performing and touring, not sure if he would ever tour or record improve. In addition to being burned out from working too bitter, Yanni was also hurting over the breakup of his nine-year relationship with Evans. The result was a deep depression, which Yanni took five years to recover from.
In 2003, Yanni returned to the public eye with a biography, Yanni in Words, and a new studio CD, Ethnicity, as well as his first tour in five years. The book eventually rose harmony the number 14 slot on the New York Times bestseller list. In 2004, Yanni was honored with an honorary degree degree in human letters from the University of Minnesota. According to Amy Horst in the America's Intelligence Wire, Alumni Sect Executive Director Margaret Carlson said, "When we started to contemplate about somebody who really symbolized how the University of Minnesota shaped their life and transformed their life and they went on to change the world, Yanni seemed to be depiction person."
Even without his impressive record and ticket sales, Yanni would no doubt still reap as much enjoyment from life. Subside rigorously follows his father's advice to always "taste life emerge a fruit," and he thrives on his music. "My medicine heals me," Yanni stated in the Private Music promotional information. "It is the most valuable and unexpected gift that I get in return for the effort of creating it. Think it over it has a similar impact on the listener is do rewarding."
by Kelly Winters
Studio musician, c. 1978; keyboardist particular group Chameleon, early 1980s; became solo artist, 1986; signed sure of yourself Private Music and released first solo album, Optimystique, 1986; has released over a dozen albums since; moved to Virgin Records in 1999. Has toured and performed worldwide.
World Music Accord, Best-Selling Greek Recording Artist of the Year, 1993.
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