Yiannis Chatzis
Yiannis Chatzis is one of Greeces’ top drummers , percussionists and performers and one of GABRIELs’ first partners. His first performance with GABRIEL was in 1983, in the Olympic Stadium of Athens,in one of the largest concerts the city had ever seen,having an approximate attendance of a hundrend thousand people,with the famous greek composer Dionysis Savvopoulos .Only a month later,Yiannis performed in the same stadium,with another famous greek artist George Dalaras,in two historical concerts with over two hundrend thousand people watching live. In 1984 having his personal model of GABRIEL(model by Yiannis Chatzis),started performing at the TENTA theater with top singers George Dalaras and Charis Alexiou and the famous composer and solist Christos Nikolopoulos.
These successful performances, playing with GABRIEL , continued in 1985 with Dalaras in a large number of concerts which took place in the S.E.F stadium , with Paco de Lucia , the famous guitarist guesting.
A great moment for Yiannis Chatzis and GABRIEL,came in 1988 ,when a number of concerts took place in New Yorks’ Madison Square Garden. George Dalaras and Al Di Meola ,famous latin guitarist ,presented Dalaras’ latin songs.
The following years Yiannis Chatzis always playing with GABRIEL,continues his performances throught the worlds most famous theaters,such as the Gorki Park in Moscow ,the Olympia theater in Paris , the Palais de Brussells ,the Odeon in London and a large number of concerts in theaters and parks in Australia (Sidney , Melbourne ) ,USA (New York ,San Francisco,Los Angeles ,Oakland ,Seattle ,Chicago ,Detroit ,Clevelant ,Atlantic City,Philadelphia ,Boston ,Connecticut ,Salt Lake ,Miami ,Tampa) ,Canada(Toronto ,Vancouver ,Montreal) ,Sweden ,Germany ,Finland a.o, all of them with George Dalaras and various guests. Especially in the US ,Yannis received many flattering comments from famous musicians such as Sam Ulano ,Dennis Davies a.o ,concerning the perfection of the sound and the construction finess of GABRIEL drums.
In 1998 Yiannis Chatzis ,became a member of K.O.E.M(State Orchestra Of Greek Music) under the direction of the great composer and conductor Stavros Xarchakos.Along the participation of the world’s famous soprano Agness Baltsa ,they started a world tour which included concerts in Germany , France , Japan ,Belgium , Austria a.o. In 2004 ,the closing ceremony of the Athens Olympic Games, became the top moment of Chatzis –GABRIEL thirty year common course. Yiannis Chatzis and GABRIEL drums continue till nowadays their common voyage in music ,having added to their already long list , during the last eight years ,some hundrends of successful performances in Greeces’ most famous ancient theaters(Dodoni, Philippos ,Herodus Atticus odeum ,temple of Poseidon in Sounio , Delfi ,Ancient Olympia , Amfipolis(ennea odoi) , Megaron of music in Athens and Thessaloniki ,in Gazarte and the great Pallas theater.