Trivia

Son-in-law of Gary Cooper and Sandra Shaw.

Pianist and composer.

Had a son, Stefan Jude Janis (1955-2017) with ex-wife, June Dickson Wright.

At age 10, he fought with his sister and put his hand through a glass door, cutting the little finger on his left hand down to the bone. He suffered from hand problems for the rest of his life, essentially playing with only nine fingers. When he was in his forties, he developed psoriatic arthritis that spread to both hands and wrists, causing great pain. He become a spokesman for the Arthritis Foundation, for which he played several benefit concerts.

His discography covered repertoire from Bach to David W. Guion and included major piano concertos from Mozart to Rachmaninoff and Liszt to Prokofiev.

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 November 2010.

Janis studied with Horowitz from 1944 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.

Janis was an American classical pianist.

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 Chateau 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".

He made numerous recordings for RCA Victor and Mercury Records, and occupies two volumes of the Philips series Great Pianists of the 20th Century.

After demonstrating perfect pitch on a toy xylophone in kindergarten, Janis studied with Abraham Litow until he was 8 years old.

Vladimir Horowitz had advised Janis to concertize to build self-confidence and stage presence, so he postponed his successful Carnegie Hall debut until 1948.

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.

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 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.

In November 2016, Byron Janis conducted the first ever Master Class between New York and Moscow via Remote Live technology.

Byron 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.".

Janis was 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.

Martin Scorsese is developing a Byron Janis biopic for Paramount Pictures from a script by Peter Glanz. The project is based on Janis' autobiography.

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.

He made his orchestral debut at age 15 with Toscanini's NBC Symphony Orchestra.

He was honored as Commander of the French Légion d'Honneur for Arts and Letters.

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.

He was featured in the PBS documentary, by Emmy-award-winning producer Peter Rosen, The Byron Janis Story, which highlighted his struggles with arthritis.

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.

In the DVD A Voyage With Byron Janis, he hosts a musical journey through Chopin's life.

Janis received the Stanford Fellowship, the highest honor of Yale University.

He was invited six times by four sitting Presidents to perform at the White House and was written into the Congressional Record of both the Senate and the House of Representatives, honoring him as "a musician, a diplomat and an inspiration.".

In June 2012, he was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award for his work in Arthritis Advocacy.