By Phyllis Pollack
Elton John, the quintessential rock keyboardist of the last five decades, will celebrate Yamaha's 125th anniversary by participating in a historical concert for its dealers on Friday, January 25th, 2013 at Disneyland’s Hyperion Theater in Anaheim, California. The event will take place during National Association of Music Merchandisers NAMM convention week.
Yamaha will also mark the anniversary with an event at 2013's NAMM show in Anaheim, scheduled from January 24 to 27.
Using Yamaha’s pioneering DisklavierTV, powered by RemoteLive technology, Elton’s performance on the Yamaha Disklavier, will reproduce piano onstage, along with a 70-piece orchestra.
The concert will be streamed live over the Internet and simultaneously to remote Disklaviers in many countries around the world.
His actual piano keystrokes are then faithfully recreated, note for note, in real time on each of the remote instruments, while the entire orchestra is seen and heard on adjacent monitors, in perfect sync with the remote piano performances.
The locations of the remote performance venues will be announced shortly.
“Elton John is one of the most successful and influential music makers of our time, and Yamaha is thrilled to bring him to a global audience in this history making manner,” said Chris Gero, vice president of Yamaha Entertainment Group of America, producers of the show.
“This exciting event will also demonstrate how Yamaha DisklavierTV is forever changing the way in which a live piano concert can be enjoyed in real time around the world.”
Regarding the new technology, Elton commented, “I’m constantly astonished by the inventive skills and versatility of the Yamaha team."
"Not only have they built all my touring pianos for the past 20 years, as well as the wonderful Million Dollar Piano that resides at Caesars Palace, but they’ve also now perfected the RemoteLive technology, which means that effectively, I can perform the concert live in Anaheim on January 25, live across the Internet and also live in venues worldwide–all at the same time.
Elton, who has played Yamahas for years, is known for his critically acclaimed rock songs centering around keyboards, starting with 1971's hit single, “Your Song.”
Still in collaboration with lyricist Bernie Taupin, Elton has released radio staples including “Rocket Man,” “Tiny Dancer,” “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting,” “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” “Daniel,” “Crocodile Rock,” “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me,” “The Bitch Is Back,” “Philadelphia Freedom” and “Bennie and the Jets.”
His 1997 reworking of the 1973 hit “Candle in the Wind” as a tribute to the late Diana, Princess of Wales, sold over 33,000,000 copies worldwide and set records, being heard by an estimated global television audience of two billion people.
Since his live career began in 1970, Elton has played over 3,600 concerts worldwide. In 1992, he created the Elton John AIDS Foundation, and in February 1998, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
During 2013 Elton will be looking both back, with celebrations to mark the 40th anniversary of the release of the Goodbye Yellow Brick Road album, and forward, with the release of a brand new studio album.
He will continue to tour across the world with his band, and in April will return to Caesar's Palace for another season of the Million Dollar Piano show. A DVD of that house gig will be seen as a 2013 release.
Last year at NAMM, Elton's music received a lot of attention when one of his stunning concert performances was used to demo sound via ultra high-end audio visual equipment.
At NAMM 2012, Yamaha will introduce new technologies, including a major update to The Hub, e central portal for delivering audio and video podcasts, on-demand videos and live broadcast video streams, combining a vast mobile-optimized video library with Yamaha’s social media outlets and blogs.
Also at NAMM, Yamaha's new Hub will bring together live video feeds from the booth and events at NAMM, in addition to photos, social content and on-demand videos. The site will also present multiple HD live broadcast stream feeds via the NewTek Tricaster, a mobile video production unit that fits on a desktop.
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