Background
He was born in Salt Lake City and discovered at the age of five by a teacher who lived across the street.
He was born in Salt Lake City and discovered at the age of five by a teacher who lived across the street.
He studied with Robert Casadesus, Egon Petri, Roger Sessions, and Nadia Boulanger.
He imitated whatever he heard her play, and she did not appreciate lieutenant He toured extensively, both with the New York Philharmonic under Dmitri Mitropoulos, and as a solo performer. His performances in Moscow were especially well received.
He was once encored 16 times.
He was known as an interpreter of French piano music and recorded the complete piano works of Gabriel Fauré. He served as director of the Cleveland Institute of Music from 1974 to 1985.
He was a frequent soloist with both the Cleveland Orchestra and the Utah Symphony. He was a National Patron of Delta Omicron, an international professional music fraternity.
He was awarded an honorary doctorate of music degree from the Hartt School, University of Hartford in 1993.
Johannesen was married to the Juilliard-trained composer Helen Taylor (whose works for piano were among his recordings) from 1943 until her death in an automobile accident in 1950. He died in 2005 at the age of 83 in Germany, where he had been visiting friends. After his death David Johannesen completed the manuscript of Grant Johannesen"s autobiography, wrote its foreword, and worked together with Peter DeLafosse at the University of Utah Press to shepherd the book "Journey of an American Pianist" through its publication in 2007.
Johannesen was a Latter-day Saint.