| Yanni Yanni has always charted a solitary and distinctive path. A champion swimmer and self-taught pianist with the gift of perfect pitch, he left the comforts of Kalamata, Greece, on the spectacular shores of the deep blue Mediterranean, and then began to fashion his own kind of American success story, later to become an international success story. After graduating from the University of Minnesota with a B.A. in psychology, after trading the Grecian sunshine for frosty winters, he would seek a life in music, though he could not read a note and wrote wholly original works that, then and now, defy categorizing. From the beginning, he operated with a simple creed: a faith in hard work and keeping an open mind. Yanni's first Grammy-nominated album was Dare to Dream (1992), which produced the vocal single "Aria," popularized by an award-winning British Airways commercial. His following album, In My Time, a gentler collection of piano-focused pieces, was also nominated for a Grammy Award and attained Platinum status. In 1994 Yanni achieved a personal triumph when he returned to his Greek homeland and recorded an album at the 2,000-year-old Herod Atticus Theatre in Athens. The result, Yanni: Live at the Acropolis, would be a sensation. It has almost continuously remained on the charts since its release, sold more than seven million copies worldwide, earned more than 35 platinum and gold albums, and risen to becoming one of the best-selling music videos of all time. How to follow the unprecedented success of Live at the Acropolis? By becoming the first major Western Artist ever to perform and record at India's Taj Mahal and China's Forbidden City, resulting in the multi-platinum album Tribute. This is an artist who invested millions of dollars into the project before a single sound was recorded, whose organization mounted a near biblical effort with the regional of Uttar Pradesh to improve roads and build two bridges in order that the flood plains surrounding the Taj Mahal could be transformed for three historic concerts beneath one of the world's greatest wonders.
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