(NASHVILLE) - Following three concerts at India's Taj Mahal, marking that monument's first permitted use by a Western artist, composer/performer Yanni notched another cultural landmark as the first Western artist to perform at Beijing's Forbidden City May 30-31. Yanni also played the Shanghai Arena (May 16-18), Tianhe Arena in Guangzhou (May 21-22) and Beijing's Capital Arena (May 24-25). Yanni's special performances at the Working People's Cultural Palace in Forbidden City was to be broadcast to an estimated 250 million Chinese viewers on CCTV and will later be combined with Taj Mahal footage in a chronicle of his Global Music Event. That show will be broadcast as a 90-minute national PBS special in the U.S. Dec. 2.
(photo courtesy of Windham Hill Records)