It was indeed a night to remember last Sunday when Wizcraft in Sri Lanka produced and presented the Yanni concert in Colombo. Yiannis Chryssomallis, known professionally as Yanni, is a Greek pianist, keyboardist, composer and music producer who has spent his adult life in the United States. Yanni continues to use the musical shorthand that he developed as a child, blending jazz, classical, soft rock, and world music to create predominantly instrumental works. As this genre of music was not well suited for commercial pop radio and music television Yanni achieved international recognition by producing concerts at historic monuments and by producing videos for public broadcast.  Historic sites for Yanni's concerts have included India's Taj Mahal, China's Forbidden City, the United Arab Emirates' Burj Khalifa, Russia's Kremlin, Puerto Rico's El Morro castle, and Lebanon's ancient city of Byblos.

Yanni has employed well known musicians of various nationalities and incorporated a variety of exotic instruments to create music that is being called an eclectic fusion of ethnic sounds. Influenced by his encounters with cultures around the world, his music, he says reflects his “one world, one people” philosophy.

The programme Yanni did in Colombo was amazing.  The venue chosen by Wizcraft was the Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium which had been aptly cleaned up by the organisers and was a very suitable and comfortable one. The stage, sound and lighting was all amazingly good. The fact that the audience was big fans and followers of Yanni’s music made the concert even greater and the atmosphere more electrifying. I cannot think of anybody walking out disappointed.

One must congratulate Wizcraft for organising this tremendous concert, probably the best  international concert witnessed in Sri Lanka.  Hopefully they will keep on bringing down many more famed artistes and organise their presentations at this same level of professionalism.

Yanni with the directors of Wizcraft
 

Of Poachers

Last week’s column certainly stirred up quite a storm.  It seems that every person who runs a professional businesses is affected by poachers.  Architects, artistes, furniture designers, advertising agencies are some from an endless list. It appears that most people either do not want to spend money or do not want to pay professionals for their services.  As one of the professionals told me, poachers mostly are the cause for very low standards in an industry since they have a trainee or an apprentice turn out their requirements and, in turn, the trainee begins to believe that the peak has been reached and looks to move out to start on their own. 

The innocent public who patronise such establishments soon begin to realise its limitations and move on, while the trainee fast learns that little knowledge is a dangerous thing.  Such is the situation caused by the poachers.  Certainly food for thought.