legendary american CLASSICAL pianist
Byron Janis is internationally renowned as one of the world's greatest pianists. He made his orchestral debut at age 15 with Toscanini's NBC Symphony Orchestra and the following year was chosen by Vladimir Horowitz as his first student. At 18, he became the youngest artist ever signed to a contract by RCA Victor Records. Two years later, in 1948, he made his Carnegie Hall debut which was hailed as an unparalleled success.
Mr. Janis was the first American artist chosen to participate in the 1960 Cultural Exchange between the United States and the Soviet Union and was hailed on the front page of The New York Times as, “an ambassador in breaking down ‘cold war’ barriers.” He was also the first American concert pianist to be asked back to Cuba, 40 years after his last performance there, during which time no American was allowed to perform on Cuban soil.
In March of 2017, Maestro Janis released a new album, the first of three, “Byron Janis Live on Tour,” a collection of previously unissued live performances recorded between 1979 and 1999, as well as solo-piano arrangements of three original compositions.
His many recordings appear on the RCA, Mercury Phillips, EMI, Sony and Universal labels. In the Spring of 2012, EMI released a Byron Janis “Chopin Collection,” a compilation of his Chopin recordings featuring, for the first time on one CD, two unknown Chopin waltz manuscripts which he discovered at Yale University ((the other two versions he discovered at the Chateau de Thoiry in France).
In 1973, he developed psoriatic arthritis in both hands and wrists yet he continued his performing career and made two highly acclaimed CDs. He kept it secret until 1985 when, after a performance at the White House, Nancy Reagan made his condition public when she announced that he would become a spokesperson for the Arthritis Foundation as its National Ambassador to the Arts.
Live from Leningrad, 1960, a recording made in secret and recently discovered of his historically significant performance in Russia during the height of the Cold War. Maestro Janis was unaware of its existence until his sound engineer Seth Winner, who received it by mail from an unnamed source, brought the vinyl to him.
Live from Leningrad, 1960 is comprised of 16 classical pieces from six composers, including Aaron Copland’s Piano Sonata composed in 1939, which reflects Copland’s fear of WW II, and ends with beautiful bells that “announce the hope for peace,” says Janis. Other featured composers: Chopin, de Falla, Liszt, Mozart and Schumann. Live from Leningrad is the second in a series of Janis’ previously unreleased recordings of live performances.
Maestro Janis performed in Leningrad, now St. Petersburg, at the behest of President Kennedy, whose administration appointed Janis our country’s first Cultural Ambassador to Russia. The Cultural Exchange was meant to soften the relationship between the two superpowers. The beginning of this Cultural Exchange was fraught by hostilities towards the USA due to Russia’s shooting down of a new USA U2 spy plane.
LISTEN TO A PREVIEW
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
1. Mozart Piano Sonata No. 5 G Major K.283. 1 Allegro
2. Mozart : Piano Sonata No. 5 K283. 2 Andante C Major
3. Mozart Piano Sonata No. 5 K283. 3 Presto
4. Schumann: Arabesque C Major Op.18
5. Chopin : Piano Sonata No. 2 B Flat Minor Op. 35. 1 Grave - Doppio Movimento
6. Chopin : Piano Sonata No. 2 B Flat Minor Op.35
7. Chopin : Piano Sonata No. 2 B Flat Minor Op.35 - 3 Marche Funèbre
8. Chopin : Piano Sonata No. 2 B Flat Minor Op.35 - 4 Finale
9. Liszt : Valse Oubliée No. 1
10. Liszt : Sonetto del Petrarca No. 104
11. Copland : Piano Sonata. 1 Molto Moderato
12. Copland: Piano Sonata. 2 Vivace
13. Copland: Piano Sonata. 3 Andante Sostenuto
14. Chopin : Étude F Major Op. 25 No. 3
15. Chopin : Étude G Flat Major Op. 10 No. 5 (Black Key Étude)
16. de Falla : The Three-Cornered Hat : The Miller’s Dance
Among his honors are: Commander of the French Legion d'Honneur for Arts and Letters, the Grand Prix du Disque, the Stanford Fellowship (the highest honor of Yale University) and the Distinguished Pennsylvania Artist Award. He received an honorary doctorate at Trinity College and the gold medal from the French Society for the Encouragement of Progress, the first musician to receive this honor since its inception in 1906. Mr. Janis also has had the great honor of being invited six times by four sitting President’s to perform at the White House and was recently written into the Congressional Record of both the Senate and the House of Representatives, honoring him as, “a musician, a diplomat and an inspiration.”
Mr. Janis has been featured many times on major television interview and talk programs such as The Tonight Show, 20/20 and CBS Sunday Morning, amongst many others. In recent years, he has been concentrating on writing music for stage and screen and has composed the score for a major musical production of "The Hunchback of Notre Dame." He has also written the score for The True Gen, a feature documentary on the 20-year friendship between Gary Cooper and Ernest Hemingway and many more compositions which will be featured on new CD due to release in late 2018: Janis Plays Janis.
He is featured in the PBS documentary, by Emmy-award-winning producer Peter Rosen, “The Byron Janis Story” which attests to the courage he has displayed in refusing to become overwhelmed by a disease that would have brought the career of most other artists to a standstill. His memoirs, Chopin and Beyond: My Extraordinary Life in Music and the Paranormal were released in November 2010.
In November of 2011, Mr. Janis became a Yamaha artist and launched the unprecedented new technology of Yamaha’s Disklavier CFX Piano. In November 2016, Mr. Janis conducted the first ever Master Class between New York and Moscow via Remote Live technology. He has also been appointed as the first Presidential Advisor to the Yamaha Music and Wellness Institute.
As he approaches his 90th birthday this coming March 24, 2018 Mr. Janis is still creating music. Live from Leningrad, 1960, just released in February of 2018 is the second of three CD and limited-edition vinyl pressings Janis is making public. 2017 marked the 70th anniversary of his first album release, which he celebrated by putting out Byron Janis Live on Tour, Vol.1, a collection of previously unreleased live performances recorded between 1979 and 1999, as well as solo-piano arrangements of three original compositions. Volume II, to be released in 2018, will include other live unreleased performances and original compositions.
He is married to Maria Cooper, daughter of Gary Cooper, and they have a son, Stefan who sadly passed away in 2017.
