Mr. Janis withdrew from the concert scene – temporarily, it turned out – and devoted himself to songwriting, a pastime of his youth, which he gave up when his touring schedule became too demanding.
At the urging of folk singer Judy Collins, he sent a tape of his songs to the music publisher Warner Chappell, who engaged him to compose 22 songs for the stage setting of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” with lyrics by Hal Hackady and a book by Anthony Scully. The play premiered at the Westbeth Theater in Manhattan in 1993.
Mr. Janis’ works also included the incidental soundtrack to the 2013 documentary “Cooper and Hemingway: The True Gen,” about Ernest Hemingway’s relationship with Mr. Janis’s father-in-law, actor Gary Cooper. Mr. Janis and Maria Cooper were married in 1966. An earlier marriage to June Dickson Wright resulted in divorce. Mr. Janis had one son from his first marriage, Stefan, who died in 2017.
In the mid-Nineties, Mr. Janis returned to performing, initially cautiously, giving short appearances at profit live shows wherein he shared the bill with other performers, progressively constructing to a program of works by Mozart, Schumann, Chopin and Prokofiev with a recital at Alice Tully Hall in 1998, which marked the fiftieth anniversary of his recital debut at Carnegie Hall.
Born Byron Yanks in McKeesport, Pennsylvania on March 24, 1928, he grew up in Pittsburgh, where his father, Samuel, owned a sporting goods store. The elder Mr. Yanks modified his family name from Yankilevitch before his son was born, and by 1943 he would change it twice more – to Jannes and eventually to Janis.
Mr. Janis’s mother, Hattie, was a housewife. She first noticed her son’s musical talent when he was given a xylophone at about age 5, and he or she quickly began choosing melodies. When he began to correct the mistakes his older sister Thelma had made while practicing for piano lessons, Mr. Janis’s parents allowed him to take his own lessons.
