[2] Born in Copenhagen,[2] Johansen was introduced to the keyboard by his father and made his hometown debut at the age of twelve.

[2] In the early 1940s, Johansen settled in Blue Mounds, Wisconsin, a small rural town approximately 25 miles west of Madison.

[2] Johansen was one of the first pianists to attempt to record all of Liszt's known piano music, researching and uncovering many previously unknown works in the 1960s.

The Australian born pianist Leslie Howard subsequently recorded 99 CDs, which is believed to account for Liszt's total keyboard production.

[3] As a composer he was also prolific, with a catalogue of nearly 750 compositions in various forms: 31 piano sonatas, three piano concertos, three violin sonatas, a large 1937 work for orchestra (Variations, Disguises, and Fugue, on a Merry Theme of Cyrus McCormick), along with works for string quartet, oboe, and vocal ensembles.