Byron Janis

49
Byron Janis bigraphy, stories - American musician

Byron Janis : biography

March 24, 1928 –

Byron Janis (born March 24, 1928) is an American classical pianist. He made several recordings for RCA Victor and Mercury Records, and occupies two volumes of the Philips Great Pianists series. His discography covers repertoire from Beethoven to David W. Guion and includes major piano concertos from Mozart to Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev. His pianism has been described as combining a Horowitzian technique with a sublime musicality akin to Alfred Cortot’s. He has a special affinity for Frédéric Chopin and made a French film on him that was shown around the world.

Life

Janis was born Byron Yanks (a shortened form of his family’s name, Yankilevich)John Ardoin, Great Pianists of the 20th Century, Philips, 1999, Set I on Byron Janis in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, to Russian-Polish Jewish parents. He had his first piano lesson at age 4 with Abraham Litow, who had studied at the prestigious Music Conservatory in Leningrad. Janis studied with Litow until he was 7. "Nurturing Creativity in the Next Generation", Byron Janis, Wall Street Journal, Dec. 8, 2010, page D7 The pedagogue Selmar Janson had offered Janis a scholarship at Carnegie-Tech University in Pittsburgh, where he had many relatives, but his mother insisted, over the objections of the rest of his family, that he be sent to New York.

Later, he studied at the Juilliard School with Josef and Rosina Lhévinne, and received musical influences from Rachmaninoff and Alfred Cortot. At 10, Janis lost sensation in a finger due to an accident but this did not prevent his debut under Frank Black playing Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in New York. When Janis was 16, Vladimir Horowitz heard his performance of the same concerto with the Pittsburgh Symphony conducted by 15-year-old Lorin Maazel and invited Janis to work with him. Janis studied with Horowitz for four years. He remained a close friend and one of only three students ever acknowledged by Horowitz–the other two being Gary Graffman and Ronald Turini.

In 1960, he was chosen as the first American to be sent to the Soviet Union, and his performance opened the successful exchange between the cold war adversaries. This was the first of his many world tours, on which he premiered many works and performed breathtakingly challenging piano-concerto programs. In 1967, he accidentally unearthed two previously unknown manuscripts of Chopin waltzes in France — this was considered "the most dramatic musical discovery of our age". For these achievements, he appeared on the front page of the New York Times many times. He also published an edition of Chopin waltzes.

He was honored by several U.S. Presidents and in 1984, at a State Dinner at the White House in his honor at the invitation of President Ronald Reagan, he revealed that he had been suffering from severe arthritis throughout much of his decades-long career. The painful and crippling condition eventually required surgery on his hands. However, he recovered sufficiently to resume performing and recording commercially and continues to do so today.

He received a host of the most prestigious honors each of which had not previously been conferred on an American, including the Commandeur de la Légion d’Honneur and Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres (France’s highest decorations), the Grand Prix du Disque and Cannes Classical Award (both for his Mercury Records recording of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 1 and Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 accompanied by the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra under Kirill Kondrashin), and the Harriet Cohen International Music Award and Beethoven Medal (for his performance of Beethoven sonatas).

In 2008, Byron Janis had the great honor of being written into the Congressional Record of both the Senate and the House of Representatives, honoring him as a musician, a diplomat and an inspiration.

Byron Janis continues his journey as a performer as well as mentoring, composing, and educating. His focus recently has been on children suffering with Juvenile Arthritis, an aspect of the disease that has until now commanded less public awareness. Mr. Janis’ work in the field of arthritis advocacy complements the activities of the Yamaha Music and Wellness Institute which is committed to bridging the gap between music and medicine on both scientific and educational levels. Young and old can appreciate the healing power of music. Mr. Janis also serves as the International Ambassador for the Arthritis Foundation and the Presidential Advisor to the Yamaha Music and Wellness Institute. The YMWI has merged with the Cleveland Clinic to develop further research on the scientific findings revealing that playing a musical instrument can play a significant role in healing.