43 Facts About Yanni

Yiannis Chryssomallis, known professionally as Yanni, is a Greek composer, keyboardist, pianist, and music producer.

Yanni continues to use the musical shorthand that he developed as a child, blending jazz, classical, soft rock, and world music to create predominantly instrumental works.

Additional historic sites for Yanni's concerts have included India's Taj Mahal, China's Forbidden City, the United Arab Emirates' Burj Khalifa, Russia's Kremlin, Puerto Rico's El Morro castle, Lebanon's ancient city of Byblos, Tunisia's Roman Theatre of Carthage, India's Laxmi Vilas Palace, the Egyptian pyramids and Great Sphinx of Giza, and the Amman Citadel.

At least sixteen of Yanni's albums have peaked at No 1 in Billboard's "Top New Age Album" category, and two albums received Grammy Award nominations.

Yanni has written film scores and the music for an award-winning British Airways television commercial.

Yanni popularized the combination of electronic music synthesizers with a full symphony orchestra.

Yanni has employed musicians of various nationalities and has incorporated a variety of exotic instruments to create music that has been called an eclectic fusion of ethnic sounds.

Yanni was born November 14,1954, in Kalamata, Greece, the son of a banker, Sotiri Chryssomallis, and a homemaker, Felitsa.

Yanni displayed musical talent at a young age, playing the piano at the age of 6.

Yanni's parents encouraged him to learn at his own pace and in his own way, without formal music training.

Yanni set a Greek national record in the 50-meter freestyle swimming competition at age 14.

In November 1972, Yanni moved from Greece to the United States to attend the University of Minnesota beginning in January 1973, majoring in psychology.

Yanni later explained that learning English forced him to read each paragraph several times in what he called a slow and frustrating process, but which helped him memorize the material and do well on tests.

In 1977, Yanni joined the Minneapolis-based rock group Chameleon, performing with its founder, drummer Charlie Adams, with whom he would work into the 2010s.

In 1980, Yanni recorded and produced his first album Optimystique, which Atlantic Records re-released in 1984 and Private Music re-released in 1989.

Yanni's emergence was said to be "timed perfectly" with the growing popularity of contemporary instrumental music.

Yanni gained visibility as the result of his November 1990 appearances in People magazine and on The Oprah Winfrey Show with actress Linda Evans, with whom he had been in a relationship since 1989.

In March 1997, Yanni became one of the few Western artists permitted to perform and record at the Taj Mahal in India.

Yanni followed in May 1997 with performances at the Forbidden City in Beijing, China, becoming the first Western artist in modern times permitted to perform at the historic site.

Yanni later related that he had become depressed, and returned to Greece to live with his parents for three months before traveling the world.

In 2000, after the two-year hiatus, Yanni released If I Could Tell You, his first studio album in seven years.

Yanni described the album as more of an even-tempered "listening" album, less dramatic than the live concert albums Live at the Acropolis or Tribute.

Yanni explained that he himself created all the album's sounds, including apparent vocalizations, through the manipulation of sound in his studio.

On October 23,2003, Yanni performed a keyboard instrumental version of The Star-Spangled Banner before Game 5 of the 2003 World Series.

Yanni performed again in China in the February 9,2013, CCTV Spring Festival Gala with Chinese zither artist Chang Jing in what was the first year that CCTV had invited foreign artists to perform.

In March 2014, Yanni released his seventeenth studio album, Inspirato, a collaboration with operatic tenor Placido Domingo and producer Ric Wake that, like Yanni Voices five years earlier, highlighted vocal performances.

In Inspirato, distinguished operatic vocalists performed remakes of songs that Yanni had previously released over his career, the songs' titles and lyrics being predominantly in the Italian language.

On October 30 and 31,2015, Yanni performed two concerts on the grounds of the Egyptian pyramids and Great Sphinx of Giza, his first performance in Egypt.

In December 2015, Yanni produced a song, "Seven Billion Dreams," for a NASA video that marked the 15th anniversary of the International Space Station.

On December 18,2015, Yanni released the single "Desert Soul" from his eighteenth studio album, Sensuous Chill, which was released on January 29,2016.

In November 2019, Yanni released single "Blue", taking inspiration from the ocean.

From childhood, Yanni accepted a wide variety of musical styles, listening to radio stations from Northern Africa, Arab countries, and Europe.

Yanni explained that the 1970s, with its new technology and electronic instruments, were particularly influential at that stage in his career, and that even recently his Truth of Touch album was started by experimenting with new sound designs.

The genre of Yanni's music made it unsuitable for most commercial radio or for music television.

Yanni continues to use the "musical shorthand" that he developed as a child rather than employ traditional musical notation, and hires someone to perform what he calls the "tedious process" of making conventional written charts for orchestra members.

Yanni's concerts, known for their lighting and other technical aspects, require more than 2,000 timing cues for a show's lighting.

Yanni's music has been used in television shows and televised sporting events, including the British Open, the US Open, the Super Bowl, Wide World of Sports, US Open tennis championships, the Tour de France, the World Figure Skating Championships, and the Olympic Games.

Yanni was named to the same list in 2014,2012,2011,2010,2009,2007, and 2006.

Yanni's albums Dare to Dream and In My Time received Grammy Award nominations for Best New Age Album.

At least sixteen Yanni albums peaked at No 1 in Billboard's "Top New Age Album" category, more than anyone except Jim Brickman and Mannheim Steamroller.

Yanni has had a collaborative relationship with the Public Broadcasting Service in its fundraising efforts since the early years of his career, reportedly raising more than $13 million for that organization.

Yanni has assisted the conservation efforts of the World Wide Fund for Nature, sponsoring a symbolic "Panda Adoption Kit" program in which he guaranteed $50,000 in donations.

Yanni has performed concerts in troubled areas of the world, such as in Tunisia one week after the July 17,2014, terrorist attack that killed 14, and in Egypt to convey an image of stable security after the Egyptian Crisis but between whose two Great Pyramids concerts occurred the October 31,2015, terrorist downing of Metrojet Flight 9268 in the Sinai Peninsula.