Yanni

Yanni, born Yiannis Chryssomallis on November 14, 1954, in Kalamata, Greece, is a composer, keyboardist, pianist, and music producer who has performed on Broadway, with credits including Pure Yanni and Yanni, spanning appearances from 1993 to 2019. The son of banker Sotiri Chryssomallis and homemaker Felitsa Chryssomallis, he began playing piano at age six, developing a personal musical shorthand as a child in place of traditional notation — a system he continued to use throughout his career. His parents allowed him to learn without formal training, and he remained self-taught. At age 14, he set a Greek national record in the 50-meter freestyle swimming competition.

In November 1972, Chryssomallis relocated from Greece to the United States, enrolling at the University of Minnesota in January 1973 to study psychology. He supported himself in part by washing dishes at the student union and earned a B.A. in psychology in 1976. During his student years he played in a local rock band and continued developing his keyboard skills. After graduating, he devoted one full year exclusively to music and subsequently committed to it as his life's work.

In 1977, Chryssomallis — by then performing professionally as Yanni — joined the Minneapolis-based rock group Chameleon, founded by drummer Charlie Adams, with whom he would continue to collaborate into the 2010s. He also worked in Minneapolis with choreographer Loyce Houlton, providing music for productions by the Minnesota Dance Theatre. Following a touring period with Chameleon from 1980 to 1984, Yanni moved to Los Angeles to pursue film soundtrack work. His first album, Optimystique, was recorded and produced in 1980, subsequently re-released by Atlantic Records in 1984 and by Private Music in 1989.

In 1987, Yanni formed a band and began touring in 1988 alongside pianist and singer John Tesh and drummer Charlie Adams, promoting the albums Keys to Imagination, Out of Silence, and Chameleon Days. A performance with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra during that period drew a notable review from a Dallas Times Herald critic. Yanni also composed motion picture soundtracks during this era, including scores for Steal the Sky (1988), Heart of Midnight (1988), I Love You Perfect (1989), She'll Take Romance (1990), When You Remember Me (1990), Children of the Bride (1990), and Hua qi Shao Lin (1994). His November 1990 appearances in People magazine and on The Oprah Winfrey Show, alongside actress Linda Evans — with whom he had been in a relationship since 1989 — raised his public profile considerably.

Dare to Dream, released in 1992, became Yanni's first Grammy-nominated album and included the track "Aria," based on Léo Delibes' The Flower Duet from Lakmé (1883), which was used in an award-winning British Airways television commercial. A second Grammy-nominated album, In My Time, followed in 1993. That same year marked the beginning of his Broadway presence, which would extend through 2019 and encompass the productions Pure Yanni and Yanni.

Yanni's concert Live at the Acropolis was filmed in September 1993 at the Herodes Atticus Theater at the Acropolis of Athens, with an album, VHS, and Laserdisc released in 1994. The production featured his core band alongside a sixty-piece orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, arranged and conducted by Iranian-American musician Shahrdad Rohani. Yanni financed the production himself, investing $2 million of his personal funds. The resulting video was broadcast on PBS, reached audiences in 65 countries, was seen by approximately half a billion people, and became the second best-selling music concert video of all time — after Michael Jackson's Thriller — with sales exceeding 7 million copies worldwide. At least sixteen of his albums have reached number one on Billboard's Top New Age Album chart.

In March 1997, Yanni performed and recorded at the Taj Mahal in India, and in May 1997 he performed at the Forbidden City in Beijing, China, becoming the first Western artist in modern times permitted to do so at that site. Live broadcasts of both concerts reached approximately 100 million television viewers worldwide, and the recordings were compiled into the live album and video Tribute, released in November 1997. Following the completion of a lengthy world tour in 1998 and the end of his relationship with Evans, Yanni paused his music career, returned to Greece to stay with his parents for three months, and subsequently traveled internationally for approximately two years without giving interviews.

He returned to recording in 2000 with If I Could Tell You, his first studio album in seven years, which sold 55,000 copies in its first week and debuted at number 20 on the Billboard charts — his highest chart debut at that time. Over the course of his career, Yanni has performed in more than 30 countries across five continents, appeared in concert before more than 5 million people through late 2015, and accumulated more than 40 platinum and gold albums globally, with total sales exceeding 25 million copies. Concert venues have included the Taj Mahal, the Forbidden City, the Burj Khalifa in the United Arab Emirates, the Kremlin in Russia, El Morro castle in Puerto Rico, the ancient city of Byblos in Lebanon, the Roman Theatre of Carthage in Tunisia, the Laxmi Vilas Palace in India, the Egyptian pyramids and Great Sphinx of Giza, and the Amman Citadel. His compositions have also been used on commercial television, particularly for sporting events, and he has been a longtime fundraiser for public television.