CHENNAI: You know one is a crazy Yanni fan when she buys a Rs 20,000 ticket for a concert, and when denied a chance to meet him, goes to the hotel he’s staying in and bumps into one of the musicians in the crew and convinces them to let her meet the man himself.
But all this happened six months ago. And, clay artist Shilpa Mitha, who gifted her favourite musician a handmade figurine of himself in April, has upped her game for his birthday this Friday. “I’ve recreated his entire Taj Mahal concert setting from 17 years ago,” she tells us, gesturing to the room in her home dedicated to the six-foot-wide stage set up. With 16 clay miniatures for musicians, complete with instruments ranging from the trumpet to the harp and even a recorded voice over welcoming guests to the show — Shilpa plans to email across a video of her birthday gift to Yanni who turns a landmark 60 on November 14.
But all this doesn’t even touch the tip of the iceberg, when she throws in - “Wait till you watch them move.” As it turns out, each 11-inch tall musician created by Shilpa is actually a puppet! And all of them, including an all-white clad Yanni sitting upfront at his piano, actually ‘play’ their instruments in sync to a six -minute concert of fan favourites. “I’ve got two of my neighbours to come home and help me with the strings,” she says. And even proceeds to takes us ‘backstage’ through a brief, but painful crawl underneath the whole set up for a view of the elaborate maze of strings, as well as electrical set up (for the blue spotlights) behind it all.
“It took two months of clay work, a carpenter for the stage, an electrician and an artist to help me paint their faces,” she reveals. One can only chance a guess that this recreated Taj concert project probably cost her more than the 20k ticket. But from the joy on her face, the effort was clearly well worth the trouble. Perhaps, the only thing missing on the stage is a clay birthday cake.
My First Yanni Experience
John Sathya, Musician: I’ve been a guitarist for a long time, but mainly interested in rock ‘n’ roll. So, when an opportunity to see Yanni live came up earlier this year, I wasn’t too keen. But I went anyway and I fell in love immediately. He’s one of the greatest human beings I’ve ever seen take a stage, in my life.
Sushil Kumar, User Interface designer at Cognizant: I remember buying my first Yanni album ‘ Out of Silence’ in ‘93. Twenty years on, I’m still listening to Yanni’s music and as you can imagine my collection has grown a lot larger.
Rahul Ramachandran, Software professional: The first time I heard a Yanni composition was when my neighbour played me ‘The Storm’ on YouTube. It blew my mind. And since then, not only I am always listening to his music (sometimes even as a stressbuster at the office), I’ve even started a fan page. It’s on Facebook — YanniDieHardFans, and I welcome everyone who’s a fan to join the club.