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Yanni performed with his orchestra in Calgary, Alberta (Canada) on September 10th 2014 at the Southern Alberta Jubilee auditorium. He opened with Deliverance from the 1997 album 'Tribute'. Dressed in pure white he walked on the stage welcomed with loud applause and shoutouts. His amazing arrangements that night included Santorini, Keys to Imagination, Until The Last Moment, Acroyali - Standing in Motion, Nostalgia, Reflections of Passion and Marching Season. The amazing violin solos by Mary Simpson and Samvel Yervinyan followed by Charlie Adams' high energy drum solo was an absolute delight to hear and watch.
From a setup point of view, his orchestra was seated on an elevated platform while Yanni and his keyboards were on the ground level itself. He had 6 keyboards to the left with a Yamaha Grand Piano to the right. He generally switched from keyboards to the piano and vice versa after each song.
Not only was this show highly entertaining but also highly motivational since soon after it I finally decided to upgrade to a Yamaha PSR S950 workstation keyboard. I also started playing using a dual keyboard setup to add more voices/effects into my performances. My event at Teck, Calgary was mostly inspired by Yanni and his music.
He promised to make his Calgary performance an yearly recurrence and if everything works out I hope to revisit and relive this musical magic in 2015 again.
P.S. This magical moment of a lifetime was made possible by my good friend and colleague, Maureen, who invited me to join her for Yanni's concert that night. Thanks Maureen!