Janis (real name, Yanks, abbreviated from Yankelevitch), Byron

Janis (real name, Yanks, abbreviated from Yankelevitch), Byron, outstanding American pianist; b. McKeesport, Pa., March 24, 1928. He began to study piano with a local teacher, and at the age of seven, he was taken to N.Y., where he became a pupil of Adele Marcus. Progressing rapidly, he made his professional debut in 1943, playing Rachmaninoff’s second Piano Concerto with the NBC Sym. Orch. He played it again with the Pittsburgh Sym. Orch. on Feb. 20, 1944, with the 13-year-old Lorin Maazel on the podium. Vladimir Horowitz happened to be present at the concert and told Janis that he would be willing to take him as a private pupil; these private lessons continued for several years. In 1948 he toured South America, the same year that he played in Carnegie Hall, N.Y., to critical acclaim. In 1952 he made a tour of Europe. In 1960 he made his first tour of Russia, under the auspices of the U.S. State Dept; played there again in 1962. During a visit to France in 1967, he discovered the autograph manuscript of two waltzes by Chopin, the G-flat major, op. 70, no. 1, and the E-flat major, op. 18; in 1973 he located two variants of these waltzes in the library of Yale Univ. In 1975 he made the film Frédéric Chopin: A Voyage with Byron Janis, which was produced by the Public Broadcasting Service. In 1953 he married June Dickinson Wright; they were divorced in 1965; in 1966 he married Maria Veronica Cooper, the daughter of the movie star Gary Cooper. At the climax of his career, Janis was stricken with crippling psoriatic arthritis in his hands and wrists. In spite of the attendant physical and emotional distress, he persevered in his international career. On Feb. 25, 1985, he gave a special concert at the White House in Washington, D.C., at which time his illness was publicly disclosed. He was named Ambassador for the Arts of the National Arthritis Foundation, and subsequently gave concerts on its behalf.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire