58 | SEPTEMBER 29 • 2022 

I

n the Milford home of Dan Yessian, 
there is a Steinway baby grand piano 
that once was an important element in 
the home of composer and performer Burt 
Bacharach. 
Yessian has long been a fan of the vast 
array of Bacharach music and is glad to 
work at the same instrument he bought in 
2005. When sitting at that piano and trying 
out melody ideas, Yessian feels inspired to 
compose music for an international array of 
clients using the firm he started in 1971. 
The Yessian Music staff, now moving on 
to more management by his sons, devel-
ops sound designs and advertisements for 
Fortune 500 companies around the world. 
The team has reached from working for the 
Ford Motor Company to creating songs for 
Disney theme parks. 
As Yessian is adding his talents to enter-
tainment initiatives, a recent major project 
has been the composing of a symphony, 
“
An Armenian Trilogy,
” to mark the 100th 
anniversary of the start of the Armenian 
genocide in 1915. That became the subject 

of a film.
His latest project is with the help of 
two people he has worked with for many 
years — Jewish musician Ohad Wilner and 
singer Maurissa Rose, who has participated 
in fundraising programs for Jewish-based 
organizations. 
While Yessian plays saxophone, Wilner 
plays guitar and has arranged 
background music available 
through computer websites. 
The newest production, acces-
sible on YouTube and following 
a month’s work, presents a new 
version of the Bacharach song 
“Walk on By” with jazz and rock 
rhythms giving a new approach 
to the way the song ultimately 
sounds as performed by Rose. 
This project provides an example of the 
stories behind the various presenters avail-
able — for free — through YouTube.
“We exercised some liberty about the 
arrangement because it’s not what Burt had 
done initially with singer Dionne Warwick,
” 

Yessian said. “We went to a different place 
with it somewhere in the midsection of the 
song.
“We wanted only to bring about more of 
a dramatization of a feeling of lost love with 
somebody who was pining for somebody 
wanting to reject that feeling.
”
The lyrics are by Hal David, and the 
Bachrach-David team represents 
Jewish heritage.
“Dan has put me in a position 
that allows me to collaborate 
with talent that I never could 
have fathomed,
” said Wilner, 
whose family is from Israel, 
whose mother teaches at Hillel 
Day School in Farmington 
Hills and who speaks Hebrew 
at home. “I enjoy collaboration 
and find that the combination of multiple 
perspectives makes for interesting music. 
“Regarding motivation behind doing the 
song ‘Walk on By,
’ my inspiration comes 
from the process of interacting with tal-
ented people, finding the right keys and 

ARTS&LIFE
MUSIC

Three 
musicians 
featured on 
new version of 
“Walk on By.”

Reimagining
a Burt
Bacharach 
Classic

SUZANNE CHESSLER
CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Dan Yessian at the 
Steinway previously 
owned by Burt 
Bacharach.

Maurissa 
Rose

