YANNI : A MUSICAL PHENOMENON by Panos Polizos

On the 20^th July 2010 Yannis phoned and asked me if I would give a concert with him. I told him I would think about it and that I would phone him back.

I thought about it for several days. “He’s quite a good musician,” I thought. “We could have a very successful concert.” So I phoned him and asked him to come with his orchestra. On 14^th August he arrived in Athens. I sent my Mercedes to meet him and drive him to my house, and he said it was a pleasure to meet me.

For two months we rehearsed and on November 29^th & 30^th we gave our concert. All the TV channels announced that “ …. Panos and Yanni are giving their concert tomorrow…”. The Ancient Theatre of Herod Atticus was full ! There were about 12,000 people there ! You could hear their clapping as far as Parnassos ! Yanni was so excited ! I was beside myself with joy ! The concert was perfect ! Our songs were very impressive !

The next day we talked about the concert. Yanni said that everything was great. He also said that this concert was better than his concert in 1993 (because of me, of course !!)

Well, after this great experience I discovered that I wasn’t the only great composer in the world, but there is someone else too ~ Yanni !

PANOS POLIZOS wrote this story when he was thirteen years old. He started learning English with John Foss when he was at the Fourth Primary School in Katerini, passing the Cambridge FCE exam with a grade B at the age of thirteen and both the Cambridge and Michigan Proficiency exams when he was fourteen. He is now in his final year of “Lykeio”, and is shortly taking the Panhellinic University Entrance examinations. His many interests include acting and music – he frequently is cast in the leading role in plays, and has broadcast on TV as an organist!