About Dan

Dan Yessian ( 5 September 1944)  is a self-taught American composer, arranger, woodwind musician and keyboardist of Armenian ancestry born in Detroit.

A 1967 graduate of Wayne State University, he received a teaching degree and taught speech and English at Detroit’s Redford High School for four years. He left education to pursue a music career.

In 1971, he founded what would become Yessian Music. With just a desk and phone in a little 300-square-foot former bait shop in Farmington, Michigan he cold-called car dealers hoping to interest them in purchasing a custom jingle.

 Yessian’s jingle for the Detroit business Dittrich Furs has aired for over 40 years in the Metro area, finding its way into the culture of Detroit and Michigan.

Yessian Music now employs 35 employees and over 125 freelance composers with studios in Michigan, New York City, Los Angeles, and Europe.

Dan Yessian remains part of his company while focusing on personally meaningful creative endeavors. His sons Brian and Michael Yessian have assumed leadership roles in ownership, creative, operational, and production operations.

The company has produced music and sound design for Coke, Disney, McDonald’s, Clairol, Google Play, Sony and many other Fortune 500 Companies. Television production includes music for popular events such as The Superbowl and shows like The Voice, NBC Football, ESPN, Fox Sports, A & E Investigates, HGTV, and many others. Yessian Music has created for theme parks and museums across the world. Productions include The One World Observatory and Hudson Yards in New York, Trans Studio Bali, Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi, Lotte World in Seoul, Korea, Chimelong in China, The Movie Park in Germany, and many others. 

The company has won Emmys, Clios, and Telly industry awards, as well as multiple coveted Mobius awards. In 2016 Dan Yessian, along with Kid Rock and Al Abrams, received a distinguished achievement award at the Detroit Music Awards. Yessian was also honored by Chicago’s Screen magazine for his lifetime achievement.

Yessian was born on September 5, 1944 in Detroit to Flora and Harry Yessian. Flora and Harry entered into an arranged marriage when Flora was 17. The couple had two children; Dan and his brother Mark.

As a child, Yessian felt different from other children at school when he brought in homemade Armenian dishes for school lunches. After questions and strange looks from the other kids about his food, Yessian asked his mother to prepare him peanut butter and jelly sandwiches like the other kids. She relented. 

As a youngster, Dan considered himself an introvert, but he and his brother Mark also spent their spare time playing baseball with neighborhood children. For the most part, Dan spent his time listening to records and practicing his instrument. Artists like Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, and the Dave Brubeck Quartet were early musical influences.

Yessian graduated from Wayne State University in 1967 majoring in speech and English, avoiding music as an academic preferring to learn by ear.

In 1971 Dan met his future wife, Kathy. The couple would marry in 1973. “We had our lean years in the beginning trying to make a living while she took care of our sons…There were times I was convinced we didn’t have enough money to take care of our basic needs, but she always found a way to make it work.” They have been married for over 50 years.

As a teenager, Yessian was recruited to play in an Armenian/American wedding band called Ardziv. Afterward he started his own group under the name The Dan Yessian Quintet, taking on a greater role as a bandleader and manager, playing weddings, bar-mitzvahs, and corporate events. Dan recruited his brother Mark to play bass. Mark’s sound would become the foundation of the rhythm section in the band.

At one of those gigs, an audience member asked if he could produce a commercial jingle. Although he had never crafted a “jingle” Yessian obliged and composed the requested music.

His first jingle was for National Bank & Trust in Traverse City, Michigan.

Soon after, he found himself writing music for Sesame Street with Grammy award winning animator Ted Petok. He would then write for the nationally syndicated The Hot Fudge Show for which he would win a national award for children’s programming. Other works for television include The Electric Company, and various other local programming. He also wrote theme songs for sports organizations such as the Detroit Pistons, The Red Wings, The Tigers, and the LA Dodgers.

Yessian co-wrote songs with iconic Tigers Announcer Ernie Harwell including titles such as Tiger Tiger, Baseball Team. Their song Crowd Pleaser was recorded by Jose Feliciano.

He has worked with the likes of BJ Thomas, The Righteous Brothers, The Four Tops, Chubby Checker, Ray Stevens, Hermans Hermits, Danny and the Juniors, and others. 

Having built a reputation for creating arrangements, Yessian was invited by Dick Purtan and Harper & Ganon to provide parody songs for morning radio shows. He would appear regularly on JP McCarthy’s Focus Show with his band playing original music and jazz standards.

When TV legend Soupy Sales held his telethon raising money for children, it was requested that Yessian become his house band. That would lead to other television appearances including, Kelly & company, Robin Seymour, The Bill Kennedy Show, and others. Later on, his talents were called upon by TV and Radio networks to create music for promotion and branding.

Yessian would write music for public service announcements including the Jewish Federation, the Bottomless Toy Chest, Toys for Tots, and I Need The Earth featuring actress Dame Judi Dench.

In 1971, he founded Yessian Music in a little 300-square-foot office in Farmington, Michigan. He called car dealers hoping to interest them in purchasing a custom jingle. Yessian has personally written numbers of national and regional jingles which include Whirlpool, Dodge, Ford Motors, Coca Cola, McDonalds, Chevrolet, Little Caesars Pizza, and many more.

During the 80s Yessian met songwriter David Barrett (Composer, One Shining Moment) with whom he would compose a number of songs including, Come Back and Say goodbye, and Ring Around The Moon. Their song You Believe In Me appeared on the CBC broadcast of the Nagano Winter Games in 1998. They would later collaborate on I See Wings, a song written as a closing number for Yessian’s symphonic work, An Armenian Trilogy.

During the 1970s Dan met singer/songwriter Larry Santos on The Hot Fudge Show, sharing their individual compositions. Santos had written Candy Girl for the Four Seasons, and appeared on television shows such as American Bandstand with Dick Clark.

Yessian and Santos would collaborate on various commercial spots including Dittrich Furs and Whirlpool. Together they wrote numerous songs including Can’t We Try Again, Packin’ Up The Good Times, and sports anthem Red Wings, My Red Wings. Their song If I Never See Mary Again was picked up by Casablanca Records.

In the mid 80’s Dan met engineer/producer Gerard Smerek with whom he would record many commercial spots. Yessian would later recruit Smerek who had previously recorded and produced artists such as Bob Seger, Anita Baker, Luther Vandross, and countless others.

Yessian would be selected to serve on Governor James Blanchard’s committee for the fine arts, spearheaded by attorney general Frank Kelly. The committee was tasked with a goal to promote Michigan’s involvement in the movie and music industry.

In 1992 Yessian was called upon to write music for Detroit’s annual Thanksgiving parade, a tradition dating back over 100 years. He penned It’s a Parade and tapped vocalists Thornetta Davis and Bobby Alcott to perform it live. Additional parade music followed, with titles such as 86, Celebrate America, Celebrate Detroit featuring Lisa Fischer. Not In My Car, So Happy Together, and Making a Better You were created for the Detroit Academy of Arts and Sciences headed by choir director Angela Kee.

During the mid 1990s Dan Yessian invited Danny Beckerman, one of Australia’s famed composers, to take residence with Yessian’s company as a staff writer. In 1999 the Ford Motor Company asked Beckerman to write a song for their ambitious ad campaign, titled Just Wave Hello. The song was written at Yessian’s Farmington Hills studios and later fully orchestrated at London’s Abbey Road featuring opera singer Charlotte Church. It was then released as a two minute commercial which was played simultaneously around the world at 9:00 PM reaching one billion viewers internationally. The project received numerous awards and set the Guinness World Record as the most expensive “roadblock” commercial produced to date.

Yessian and Beckerman also collaborated and released the song, Bless this Christmas, which was sung by one of New York’s star vocalists D-train Williams.

Yessian’s collaboration with artist Curtis Boone titled Then Came You was recognized in the John Lennon songwriting contest, judged by legendary Quincy Jones.

In the early 2000s, Yessian worked with blues artist Susan Tedeschi for a General Motors industrial project. Yessian also wrote the song Magic in the City, featuring Ronnie McNier, a twenty year veteran of The Four Tops.

In 1998 and 2002 respectively, his sons Brian and Michael joined the company in positions of ownership, management, and production.

Yessian credits composer Burt Bacharach as a great source of inspiration. Songs such as The Look Of Love, A House Is Not A Home, and Make It Easy On Yourself provided foundations for chord progressions and melodies which would find their way into Yessian’s various jingles and compositions. In 2005 he purchased Bacharach’s Steinway baby grand piano, on which Bacharach wrote many of his hit songs.

In 2012 Dan Yessian was introduced to artist and songwriter Cassaundra Fitch. He found her original song, Freefall captivating and from there they would work together in developing a catalog of music. In 2014 he wrote a piece  titled Tell Me I’m Not Dreaming which Cassaundra performed as the opening theme for Detroit’s Thanksgiving Parade. Continuing their collaborations, Cassaundra found herself in the running for America’s Got Talent, and later for American Idol in 2015. Hosted by Ryan Seacrest and appearing in front of judges Keith Urban, Jennifer Lopez, and Harry Connick Jr, Cassaundra, along with Yessian as producer and co-writer earned the golden ticket to Hollywood for the next round.

Dan would bring in Musician/Producer Ohad Wilner in 2014 to assist in artist development and production. Together over the past decade they have collaborated tightly on arrangements, video production, and live events centered around An Armenian Trilogy.

As of late, Dan concentrates his creative energy into his Youtube channel titled Dan Yessian Creative, featuring performances by singers and instrumentalists, interviews with compelling personalities both in and out of the music industry. Names include Walter White, Susan Calloway, Bruce Miller, Herbie Russ, Kenny Watson, Maurissa Rose, Emmet Cohen and many more.

Notable releases from Dan Yessian Creative include cover songs and arrangements such as Walk On By, When You Wish Upon A Star, Pure Imagination, as well as informational and educational video clips discussing subjects that he finds compelling. Entertaining clips involving Armenian-centric culture include The Name Game, and My Favorite Foods among others.

In 2014 Yessian’s Pastor Rev. Garabed Kochakian Pastor Emeritus of St. John Armenian Church in Southfield asked him to create a commemorative music piece in honor of the Armenian Genocide of 1915, wherein 1.5 million Armenians were slaughtered at the hands of the Ottomans.

Uncertain of his ability to create music of such significance, Yessian’s wife encouraged him to “just think about it”. He then rushed to his piano and began to play. Influenced by the folk melodies introduced to him in his younger days, he composed the beginnings of what would become  An Armenian Trilogy. With the help of arranger and pianist Kurt Schreitmueller they composed the first iteration which was a duet for Violin and Piano, debuting at the Macomb Center for the Performing Arts in 2015.

Yessian’s ambition would drive him to expand the musical suite to full orchestration. With the help of orchestrator William Wandel, they would develop An Armenian Trilogy to a 22-minute symphonic tribute to commemorate the centennial of the Armenian Genocide of 1915. He imagined Armenians enjoying a peaceful existence with family and friends before life changed. “Those happy times turned into an ominous foreshadowing,” Yessian said on how he expressed those events in the first movement. The darkness expresses itself in Movement #2 titled The Fear, with the third expressing the faith of the Armenian people.

The symphonic suite was debuted in 2017 by the Armenian National Philharmonic, at the Aram Khachaturian Concert Hall in the capital city of Yerevan. Yessian had never been there before, “It was a trip I’ll never forget.”

“We brought the music back, and with the help of producer/mixer Ohad Wilner we were able to coordinate a hundred musicians and microphones, bringing about an exceptional sound to solidify our vision.”

At the same time, Yessian contacted long-time friend and film editor Stewart Shevin to begin sorting through the footage captured in Armenia in preparation for a documentary film. Once completed, An Armenian Trilogy at almost an hour in duration – chronicled Dan’s journey to his ancestral homeland where he would witness the performance of his own composition.

The documentary film An Armenian Trilogy has garnered acclaim and awards at various international film festivals.