Byron Janis

Byron Janis studied at Juilliard School. Training under Vladimir Horowitz is recorded. Myriam Birger is recorded as having studied under Byron Janis. The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is music, piano performance and composed musical work. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are classical music. Distinctions recorded are Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres.

• Name — Byron Janis • Birth Name — Byron Yanks • Born — 24 March 1928 • Birthplace — McKeesport, Pennsylvania, U.S. • Died — 14 March 2024 • Place of death — New York City, U.S. • Occupation — classical pianist • Years Active — 1940–2024 • Children — 1 • Family — Gary Cooper (father-in-law) Veronica Cooper (mother-in-law) • Website — http: www.byronjanis.com

Janis was born Byron Yanks in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, on March 24, 1928, the younger of two children of Hattie Horelick and Samuel Yankilevitch, who had shortened his surname to Yanks after emigrating to America, before finally setting on the surname Janis. His parents were Russian Jews. After demonstrating perfect pitch on a toy xylophone in kindergarten, Janis studied with Abraham Litow until he was 8 years old. Byron moved to New York with his mother and sister in 1936 to study with Josef and Rosina Lhévinne, and a year later, he began studying with their associate, Adele Marcus, who would remain his teacher for six years. When Marcus moved to Dallas in 1941, Yanks followed her there to continue his piano studies. He remained in Texas for three years, attending Woodrow Wilson High School. Byron Yanks made his recital debut in 1937 at the Carnegie Music Hall in Pittsburgh, and a year later, his musical sponsor, Samuel Chotzinoff, persuaded him to change his name to Byron Jannes; he would later change the spelling to Janis. After attending one of Janis' concerts in Pittsburgh in 1944, at which he played Rachmaninoff's Concerto No. 2, Vladimir Horowitz offered to take the fifteen-year-old on as his first pupil. Janis studied with Horowitz from 1944 until 1948. Horowitz had advised Janis to concertize to build self-confidence and stage presence, so he postponed his successful Carnegie Hall debut until 1948. Janis was also a composer. He wrote music for musical theater, including the score for a 1993 Off-Broadway adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, for television shows, and in collaboration on several pieces with Cy Coleman. In 1967, Janis accidentally unearthed what The New York Times called "That rarest of all musical items...", two previously unknown manuscripts of published Chopin waltzes (Op. 18 and Op. 70, No. 1) at the Château de Thoiry in France. Several years later, Janis found the same two waltzes in different versions at Yale University. These manuscripts were published together in the 1978 book The Most Dramatic Musical Discovery of the Age. In 1973, Janis developed severe arthritis in both hands and wrists. In 1985, he talked about his difficulties in public for the first time and became the First Ambassador for the Arthritis Foundation. In June 2012, he was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award for his work in Arthritis Advocacy. Janis and his wife, Maria Cooper, daughter of screen actor Gary Cooper, wrote his autobiography Chopin and Beyond: My Extraordinary Life in Music and the Paranormal, which was released in 2010. Sony also released an eleven-CD set in 2011 which reissued the LPs he made for RCA during the 1950s and 1960s. In the DVD A Voyage With Byron Janis, he hosts a musical journey through Chopin's life. In 2016, it was reported that Martin Scorsese was developing a Byron Janis biopic for Paramount Pictures from a script by Peter Glanz, adapted from Janis' autobiography. Likewise, in 2023 Mercury Records reissued all of Janis' recordings (issued and never-before-released) for that label in a 9-CD set, Byron Janis - The Mercury Masters. Janis died at a hospital in Manhattan, New York, on March 14, 2024, at the age of 95.

Byron Janis is recorded with the occupation composer. Classed in the genre classical music. Recorded as pianist, composer and musician.