Apollo - Yanni

Over a 35 year career, Yanni has filled the world with his music all the while becoming recognized worldwide for his performances and concerts. He has come to Wolf Trap before but this was the first time I had seen him and it was truly a concert like I have never seen before. Yanni was born in Kalamata, Greece and first learned music at a very young age. He was originally taught music with a shorthand version of notation, a device he continues to use to this day. He went to the University of Minnesota to study psychology and joined the band Chameleon in 1977. He soon moved to LA to pursue a career in music and released his first independent album in 1980. During this time, he also started making music for movies and this was where he achieved his first success. He began his first world tour in 1987 and soon gained recognition for his appearances on public television and films. He had a rather unconventional rise to fame as he released his music independently and relied on concert films and public television to reach his audience. His albums Dare to Dream and In My Time were both nominated for Grammys and his career reached its pinnacle when he recorded his Live at the Acropolis album and concert film in 1993. The event was fully funded by Yanni himself and is the best selling concert film in history. He has performed in many iconic locations including the Forbidden City, the Taj Mahal, the Great Pyramids, After taking a brief hiatus in 1998, he has continued to release new music in this millennium his latest album came out in 2016. His sound is rooted in new age and instrumental experimentation but his recent album has a more electronic and upbeat feel. Outside of music, he has been a firm supporter of both NASA and the World Wildlife Fund. He even broadcasted one of his shows all the way to the International Space Station! Yanni has pushed musical boundaries his entire life and while has never had great chart success, his work stand up against even the biggest musical stars and few have the international recognition that he does. 

This concert had a lot of great moments and I ultimately liked it more than i thought I would (seems to be a common theme for this season!) His music is good but its the musicians he plays with that bring the concert to another level. His multinational band were phenomenal and each person dazzled the audience at some point. Yanni himself was comfortable in being more of a conductor but his distinctive keyboard riffs come out loud and clear. His quieter numbers have a haunting, melodic quality that I really like and his upbeat songs are catchy and downright danceable His only problem is he likes to talk a lot and sometime his melodramatic speeches go on for too long. He should leave more time for his music as that's what the 6000 people came to see. On the other hand, you can tell he still loves playing and at the 25th anniversary of his acropolis concert, the Greek star has no plans except to keep pumping the music everywhere he can. 

My favorite part of the show was when he played this song that had sort of a swing beat and featured the best drum solo I've ever seen! That drummer can really play and it was amazing to see him play along for almost 10 minutes. 

Looking forward to more shows in the future!

DC  

Yanni