In the late 1980's a self taught
musician from Greece burst onto the scene to become one of the world
most recognizable pianist/composers. His career
since that start has included being the composer on over a dozen
movies and television shows, several soundtrack, albums and even
being an executive producer. Beyond the music there are several
things that most people don't know about the man. The following are
just five of those little known facts.
In the 1960's as a
youth Yanni was a member of the Greece National swim team. At one of
the meets in 1969 he set a new National record for the 50-meter
freestyle. He was 14 years-old at the time of the record breaking
performance.
In
1972 at the age of 18, Yanni left his home in Kalamata, Greece to
come to America. Once in the United States he enrolled at the
University of Minnesota to study psychology. In 1976 he graduated
with a Bachelor of Arts and started ona PhD. In 1978 he dropped out
short of getting his PhD when he came to the realization that doing
this day-in and day-out was not for him. As he put it years later in
an interview with people he said, "to
have a Ph.D. at 24 and go into practice and have children and do the
same thing over and over again–it would drive me crazy."
As
a youth fell in love with the music he would hear on the radio and at
movies. When he was offer piano lesson to help him recreate the
music he refused to take them. Instead when he would get home he
would try to recreate the music on the piano working for hours to get
it just right. Before long he was able to master the instrument.
When
Yanni was just a few years into his solo career in 1989 he meet Linda
Evans. The two started a whirlwind romance that would last for almost
a decade. The romance fizzled out in 1998 when Yanni's career sky
rocketed and Linda Evans went into semi-retirement.
Until
recently Yanni has kept it a secret that he had a daughter that was
born in the early 1980's. The reason or keeping her a secret was
that he wanted keep his little girl out of the spotlight. She was
able to live out of the limelight where she grew up and went to her
dad's alma mater. Once she graduated she went to work for her dad's
marketing company.
She still works there running all of the company's social media
marketing campaigns.
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