Dare to Dream is the eighth studio album by Greek keyboardist and composer Yanni, released in March 1992 on Private Music. The album peaked at No. 2 on Billboard'sTop New Age Albums chart and at No. 32 on the Billboard 200 chart in the same year. It went gold within two months of its release and was nominated for a Grammy. Yanni says that the title of the album, Dare to Dream, "comes from the realization that, people not only don't go after their dreams but they're actually afraid to dream at all. If you're afraid to dream, nothing will ever come to you".
Album
Critical reception
In a review by Johnny Loftus, "Dare to Dream is Yanni's first new material in three years and finds the new age composer fitting his unflinchingly romantic arrangements into tighter song structures. The surging synth backgrounds, insistent piano lines and general grandiosity that mark Yanni's sound are still intact. But tracks like "A Love for Life" or "Nice to Meet You" harness that famously epic energy in smaller stables. This tactic works especially well on the latter track, which is led by the wail of an electric fiddle. Elsewhere, Yanni plucks the heartstrings with "In the Mirror" and "So Long My Friend" - two weepy ballads that cascade like sheets of rain on a lonely city street. The seven-minute "You Only Live Once" becomes the only really epic piece on Dare to Dream, and it's pleasant enough. However, it illustrates the main drawback to Dream, which is Yanni's reliance on the shifting sands of synthesizers to do his bidding."
Selections from Reflections of Passion, In Celebration of Life and Dare to Dream
The band
''This 2 hour and 15 minute concert is performed completely live and showcases the broad range of Yanni's music through a unique marriage of acoustic and electronic sound. Yanni and two additional keyboardists, are backed by a rhythm section headed by Charlie Adams on drums, with Michael Bruno on percussion and Osama Afifi on bass, and a string section featuring Charlie Bisharat and Karen Briggs on violin, and Sachi McHenry on cello.
Charlie Adams - drums
Osama Afifi - bass guitar
Charlie Bisharat - violin
Karen Briggs - violin
Michael Bruno - percussion
Julie Homi - keyboards
Bradley Joseph - keyboards
Sachi McHenry - cello
Tour production
Yanni's Manager: Jeff D. Klein
Booking Agent: Fred Bohlander, Monterey Peninsula Artists
Tour Manager: Vincent Corry
Prod. Mgr/Designer: David "Gurn" Kaniski
House Sound Mixer: Tommy Sterling
Stage Monitor Mixer: Paul Serault
Stage Manager: Peter Feldman
Drum/Bass Tech: Jeff Buswell
Keyboard Tech: Peter Maher
Vari-lite Operator: Bryan Faris
Sound Tech: Tracy Kuntsmann
Lighting Crew Chief: Gus Thomson
Lighting Tech: Tod Metz
Tour Accountant: Diane Kramer, Numbers, Inc.
Set Construction: George & Goldberg
Wardrobe: Lynn Bugai
Yanni's Assistant: Susan Smela
Tour Publicity: Dione Dirito
Yanni thanks E-mu Systems for providing the state-of-the-art sound generating equipment, including 4 Emulator IIIs, Proteus 1 and 2s, and 2 Procussion units used in the performance.
Tour dates
Miscellaneous
The music "Once Upon a Time" was adopted by TVB as the background music of world weather from July 28, 1991 to December 31, 2009.
