Lankan fans add to Yanni’s universality
Hot on the heels of a long overdue World Cup win, another long overdue performance looks set to take the country by storm when the Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium hosts Yanni next Sunday, April 20. Tickets are almost sold out (although there might be a couple available, so do check with the organisers) and it’s impossible to miss the sense of heady anticipation of this star performer’s show.
“We hope to put on a show on par with international standards,” says Shamal Rajapakse of AKG Events, main organiser along with Wizcraft and Amuseum Special Events. AKG was behind last year’s Russell Peters show along with this year’s Bellamy Brothers concert and seem determined to not miss a beat with their successors-hence this concert, which will see a world famous musician perform some of his greatest hits live in Colombo.
He’s a man who needs little introduction. Yiannis Chryssomallis-or as most of us know him, Yanni- is a Greek pianist, keyboardist, composer and music producer with a career spanning over three decades. Entirely self-taught; when he began playing the piano aged six, his parents encouraged him to learn at his own pace and this would influence his subsequent work so much so that he still uses the musical shorthand he developed as a child and obtains assistance to translate this into traditional sheets of music for his orchestra.
Yanni gained international prominence with his breakthrough performance at the Acropolis in Greece in 1994, the resulting video of which is the second best-selling music video of all time (bested only by Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’). He would have the rare honour of performing at the Taj Mahal, China’s Forbidden City, Russia’s Kremlin, Puerto Rico’s El Morro castle and Lebanon’s ancient city of Byblos.
Perhaps it’s the musician’s ability to cross invisible boundaries with his music that has garnered him such a faithful following worldwide. The largely instrumental performance pieces are a blend of the western and eastern with lively Mediterranean vibes-easy listening for the soul. When the artist was once asked if he intentionally tried to create something that could stand the test of time as opposed to something that would sell one million copies right away, he replied that there was “no way you can create art to last forever… so you can’t have that in your mind.” Instead, describing his creative process, he would share that his knowledge of music and instruments and experience in different cultures was a “primordial soup that comes together and it shows itself and it appears. And it’s fluid. It’s effortless.”
The organisers in Sri Lanka were witness to this universality first hand when they first announced the concert on social media. “We had initially assumed our target market to be a very niche group of people,” says Shamal. “The response when we went public just blew us away.” Over a couple of weeks their Facebook event page ‘Yanni Live in Sri Lanka’ had attracted over 15,000 likes and the calls kept flooding in.
Once tickets went on sale at the Hilton they would meet the most curious assortment of fans making their way to the hotel to obtain early-bird tickets for the show. “Our youngest customer was a 13-year-old boy,” laughs Shamal. “He just walked in by himself and said ‘I’d like a ticket for Yanni please’.” They’ve had 80-year-olds coming in too and confess themselves to be ‘humbled’ by the response the show has received from Sri Lankan fans.
On the 20th audiences will be treated to an intense, uninterrupted 90-minute session with Yanni and his orchestra of internationally renowned performers including Mary Simpson (violin), James Mattos (French horn), Ming Freeman (keyboards), Jason Carder (trumpet), Yoel Del Sol (percussion), Sarah O’Brien (cello), Samvel Yervinyan (violin) and Lauren Jelencovich and Lisa Lavie on vocals amongst others. This concert is part of the Yanni World Tour and the artist will perform from a set list, including a couple of old favourites and some of his new music as well. The organisers warn that the doors will close at 8 p.m., so the audience is advised to take their seats early.
And so a week from now this fine musician will grace Colombo with his hauntingly beautiful music. Enjoy the show, ladies and gentlemen.