My husband and I attended the Yanni Voices concert here in Atlanta Saturday night thanks to One2One Network. Yanni Voices combines the veteran keyboardist, pianist, and composer with four young singers who have written lyrics to his songs. I am not a long-time Yanni fan. Actually, I’ve never listened to him beyond the scope of Yanni Voices. This project stands to broaden his appeal and spread his music to a new audience. To quote the artist himself: “There are no rules. Never mind what Yanni used to do.”

Yanni radiates joy. It’s obvious that he loves the music and the performances of his orchestra and the “voices” as much as the audience does. I expected Yanni to be an excellent musician, but one of the surprises of the concert was his orchestra. Wow. There was a playful interaction between Yanni and the orchestra members, and he lets them shine individually. A “dueling banjos” style violin duet was one of the evening’s most memorable performances.

You can’t help but get caught up in a concert that packs so much raw energy. And talent. Leslie Mills and Chloe have beautiful voices, rich and full. Leslie’s “Before the Night Ends” was one of my favorites. Ender Thomas is just fun to watch; he’s such an engaging performer.

Ultimately, for me the concert highlights were the performances by Nathan Pacheco. He delivers such emotion and power that I was captivated in spite of the fact that his songs aren’t in English. At one point my husband looked at me and said, “You’re crying and you don’t even know what he’s saying.” The crowd gave him a standing ovation, and you could see the surprise on his face. I think he’d better get used to it. In my opinion, Nathan Pacheco is a superstar in the making.

If I had one recommendation, it would be to tone down some of the costumes and dance sequences for the female singers. Talent doesn’t need gimmicks, and these ladies are loaded with talent. It insults both the singers and the audience. My husband said there were forty-year-old men engaged in locker room talk in the bathroom, and that’s just not what you’d expect at a Yanni concert.

Not only did we have great seats, but passes for a backstage Meet-and-Greet with the “voices” after the show! They spent a lot of time talking with us and posing for pictures.

This is my fellow camera-toting partner-in-crime, Mishelle, a.k.a. Secret Agent Mama. There were huge “NO CAMERAS” signs outside, but we’d been told to bring them for the meet and greet. I was a little nervous about getting kicked out of the place!