Yanni-on-the-spot

Anne Hosier

Friday, March 27, 1998 | 9:33 a.m.

He's a walking, talking Rorschach test.

What you think about Yanni, the contemporary instrumental musician with the long, flowing brunette locks, probably says as much about you as it does about him.

But whether you're a member of NoYo -- the online "No Yanni Organization," the website of which casts the Greek performer as "an evil menace to society" -- or a devout fan who credits him with unleashing your creative inner self, you can't deny Yanni's immense international popularity and commercial success.

Since releasing "Live at the Acropolis," an album and video recorded during a 1994 concert at the Herod Atticus Theater in Athens, Greece, Yanni has emerged as one of the world's most commercially successful performers, ranking above both Elton John and Aerosmith for box office draw.

At the Radio City Music Hall in New York, for example, Yanni matched Bette Midler's 1993 record draw, playing 10 sold-out dates to a combined audience of 60,000. In Mexico City, where he launched his current "Tribute World Tour," he became the first foreign artist to sell out five consecutive dates at the Auditorio Nacional. And during a single month of the U.S. leg of his tour, he broke box-office records in Cleveland, Grand Rapids, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.

"The audience just eats it up," says Valerie Scher, classical music critic for the San Diego Union-Tribune, who gave Yanni a mixed review after his last performance in San Diego.

"They just think he's the greatest thing -- he obviously has a very large and very loyal following."

"He is a music industry phenomenon in that he has a very loyal fan base that will consistently buy his records," agrees David Adelson, executive editor of Hits magazine. "When you combine his musical talent with his presentation, you've struck a winning note with record buyers -- primarily female."

The four albums Yanni's released since 1992 have all turned platinum, some many times over. The latest one, "Tribute," recorded during his concert tours of India and China last year, turned platinum in the U.S. only weeks after its November 7 release. By January it had gone gold in Brazil, Greece and Saudi Arabia; It is now approaching double platinum status in the U.S.

On Saturday, when Yanni appears at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, he'll be playing alongside many of the same musicians in the 45-piece orchestra that appeared with him at the Taj Mahal in India and the Forbidden City in Beijing during the taping of his "Tribute" album.

The performance will draw throngs of adoring fans -- at least if his recent U.S. performances are any indication.

"I think the word of mouth and the connection I have with the audience (are responsible for the success)," Yanni says. "Now the audience is big enough to where I think word of mouth has become really powerful.

"To see that many thousands of people everywhere coming out, it's surprising to say the least, but it's also very rewarding."

Polarizing audiences

From the moment Yanni first appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" around a decade ago with his then-girlfriend, "Dynasty" star Linda Evans (the pair recently split), he's generated near worship from certain -- largely female -- segments of the population, and outspoken criticism and scorn from others.

"To his detractors (Yanni) epitomizes blandness and vacuousness," says Paul Grein, an independent pop music analyst and writer. Grein, however, thinks it's wrong for critics to write Yanni off as a musical lightweight, along with performers such as John Tesh and Kenny G., simply because he's "not their cup of tea."

"To say he has no talent is absurd."

"There's no question that he has definite and distinct abilities," Scher agrees. "The music is pleasant and serviceable as background music. It's just this pleasantly innocuous sound heavily dependant on wind chimes. I don't know how many wind chimes we need in this life, but Yanni gives us a lot of them."

Scher adds that Yanni's celebrity is driven largely by his charisma and Mediterranean soap-opera star good looks. "If the music Yanni made was put together by some little guy with glasses, balding ... it's very likely his music would not be as popular as it is."

However, not everyone agrees with this assessment -- least of all the thousands of fans who credit Yanni's music with inspiring them and helping them through difficult times.

In a recent article in the Toledo Blade, one woman relates how Yanni's music inspired her to start writing poetry. She had written nothing prior to discovering his albums; Since then, she's published more than 50 poems.

"I get thousands of letters like that," Yanni says. "I haven't been talking about it because I think it's kind of private, and I don't really want to use that."

Many of the letters have come from people who have used the music to get through divorces, death and illness. "They go through chemotherapy and use the music to stop the pain," he says. "It helps them not take painkillers.

"I think there's a spirit in the music and somehow they connect to that and it gives them strength."

Although Yanni is moved by the letters, he insists he never intended to have that effect. "All I do is try to create my music as honestly as I can and what I speak about in it is what life feels like to me," he says. "Who you are will determine everything you create."

Musical stirrings

As a child growing up in Kalamata, Greece, Yanni played and enjoyed music. But he never entertained the possibility of becoming a professional performer.

"I came to the U.S. at 18 years old and studied at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, and I thought I was going to be a clinical psychologist," he says. "It wasn't until after I graduated from college that I decided to give music a chance for about a year and see how I liked it.

"That was the happiest I had ever been in my life."

From 1987 to 1993, Yanni released eight albums, including "Dare to Dream," "In My Time," and the now double platinum "Reflections of Passion."

But it wasn't until he appeared with Winfrey that he got the exposure that helped propel him toward superstardom. "That was a very powerful moment in my career because it exposed me to a wide audience," he says. "Unfortunately it was a double-edged sword."

Appearing onstage, behind the piana, Yanni came off as "this New Age piano player who plays this pretty stuff for the piano."

His subsequent performances alongside full orchestras have helped dispel the notion of Yanni as a piano player. But the "New Age" designation has lingered.

"It's an unfortunate choice of words," he says. "It's not a musical term, so when you apply a term like that to music you bring with it all the baggage from that philosophy. I have no judgment on that philosophy at all -- however, that's not what I do."

In 1993, Yanni decided to present himself to the world on his own terms.

Returning to his home country, he staged a performance with London's Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra at the Herod Atticus Theater in Athens, using the Acropolis as a backdrop. The resulting video, "Yanni Live at the Acropolis," which aired repeatedly on public television during a fund drive, generated more than $14 million.

"It was one of the all-time champion fund-raising programs in the history of PBS," says Jim Scalem, project executive for fundraising programming at PBS. However, Scalem admits the decision to air the concert was "a major gamble.

"At the time, Yanni was pretty unknown. He was probably more known as the gentleman friend of Linda Evans."

The event was an even bigger risk for Yanni, who financed it himself. "It was an untested territory and I didn't even have a commitment from PBS at the time to air it, so I could conceivably have made that video and nobody would have seen it."

Buoyant from the success of "Yanni Live at the Acropolis," the performer went on in 1997 to stage concerts at the Taj Mahal in India and the Forbidden City in China.

At the time, no foreigners had been allowed to perform in that area of Beijing. "People don't realize that we were doing the concert about 300 yards from Tianamen Square, and the concert took place about four days before the anniversary of the Tianamen Square incident. It was really amazing they trusted me that much."

In India, Yanni also faced significant hurdles. At the Taj Mahal, for example, they had to build a theater that would hold 10,000 people over a period of four days. The construction temporarily displaced some farmers, who reportedly threatened to immolate themselves in protest. "There were reports like that in the press," Yanni says. "But when I met them and we had tea, and talked awhile, I asked them if the reports were true. And they said 'no, we're not crazy.' "

The controversy, as it turns out, was generated by a political dispute between two local officials.

Yanni's personal meeting with the farmers helped diffuse the situation, however, and the show did go on as planned. The result of his efforts in both China and India is "Tribute," the video and album. The former has achieved double platinum status, and the latter is fast approaching that.

But for Yanni, who claims to have a "total disregard to what's 'in' this year or what's selling," the reward was in the process.

"I venture to say that a few yeas from now, if I were to look back on my life and see the the significant things I've done in my life, I would say that having performed at the Taj Mahal and the Forbidden City at the time I did would be one of the most significant things I've ever done."

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