PUBLISHED/Wiley memoir/music/paranormal
Chopin and Beyond: My Extraordinary Life in Music and the Paranormal
Byron Janis with Maria Cooper Janis
If you’re not instantly familiar with the name Byron Janis, you will be astonished to learn just a few of his achievements. Byron is a living legend of classical music who went from child piano prodigy at the age of four, overcoming a career-ending injury of a severed nerve in his right pinky at age eleven, becoming the first student of Vladimir Horowitz at age sixteen, debuting at Carnegie Hall at twenty, touring the Soviet Union in 1960 as the first American artist chosen to break the ice in the Cold War Cultural Exchange, to accepting the role of artistic spokesman for the Arthritis Foundation in the 1980s.
But the musical part of Byron’s life is only a piece of the story. An exceeding romantic in the 1950s, Byron is married to Maria Cooper—daughter of Hollywood legend Gary Cooper. Byron and Maria have lived a glamorous life, touring the great cities of the world, hobnobbing with notable names from Pablo Picasso to Uri Geller. Then there is the story of Byron’s incredible discoveries of two lost versions of Chopin waltzes—twice!—once at a chateau in France and once at Yale University’s music library. And there is the twelve year long private battle with ever-worsening arthritis of the hands and wrists—certain death to the performing career of a pianist—yet Byron persevered beyond the limits of human endurance, much in the way a severely banged-up athlete goes out and plays an important game or match at the highest levels of competition.
And then there are the other-worldly occurrences in Byron and Maria’s lives—too often and too specific to be mere coincidence—most notably the discovery of the Chopin waltzes. These paranormal experiences cemented Byron’s association with the life and music of Frederic Chopin—from the moment when Byron was born and one of his aunts exclaimed “He looks just like Chopin!” to the discovery of the waltzes, to meeting relatives of Chopin and Chopin’s lover George Sand, discovering that Chopin believed in the paranormal too, and that Chopin suffered from arthritis of the hands before his untimely death. Byron recognizes the usually strong bond between himself and the great composer.
But the musical part of Byron’s life is only a piece of the story. An exceeding romantic in the 1950s, Byron is married to Maria Cooper—daughter of Hollywood legend Gary Cooper. Byron and Maria have lived a glamorous life, touring the great cities of the world, hobnobbing with notable names from Pablo Picasso to Uri Geller. Then there is the story of Byron’s incredible discoveries of two lost versions of Chopin waltzes—twice!—once at a chateau in France and once at Yale University’s music library. And there is the twelve year long private battle with ever-worsening arthritis of the hands and wrists—certain death to the performing career of a pianist—yet Byron persevered beyond the limits of human endurance, much in the way a severely banged-up athlete goes out and plays an important game or match at the highest levels of competition.
And then there are the other-worldly occurrences in Byron and Maria’s lives—too often and too specific to be mere coincidence—most notably the discovery of the Chopin waltzes. These paranormal experiences cemented Byron’s association with the life and music of Frederic Chopin—from the moment when Byron was born and one of his aunts exclaimed “He looks just like Chopin!” to the discovery of the waltzes, to meeting relatives of Chopin and Chopin’s lover George Sand, discovering that Chopin believed in the paranormal too, and that Chopin suffered from arthritis of the hands before his untimely death. Byron recognizes the usually strong bond between himself and the great composer.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Byron Janis performs infrequently now, but he composes, teaches master classes, and writes regularly for the Wall Street Journal. In addition, Byron and Maria worked on a PBS documentary of Byron’s life entitled The Byron Janis Story (focusing only on the musical and the medical), that was broadcast coinciding with publication of the book.
