Concert pianist teaches resilience through music and memories

JORDAN MOSHE

This was something Jura – born in Austria before World War II – was forced to do. She had last sight of her own mother when she was 14, when her mother put her on one of the Kindertransport trains, along with 10 000 other Jewish children, sent to safety in Britain. The last words Jura recalled her mother saying to her at the train station were, “Promise me that you will hold onto your music. Let it be your best friend.”

Jura did just that, and then taught her daughter how to bring light into the world in the darkest of hours. It is this lesson that Golabek is sharing with audiences across the globe today.

“When my mother taught me to play the piano, she said that each piece of music tells a story,” says Golabek. “Between Bach and Beethoven, I heard the stories of her youth: the glorious Vienna of another century, her childhood dream of becoming a concert pianist, and the words my grandmother said to her at the train station, which remained in her heart for years after that.”

Golabek, also an author, recording artist, and radio host, will visit Johannesburg and Cape Town next month as part of her mission to share her mother’s lessons with the world.

Through musical storytelling, she will illustrate the life of her mother, then a destitute 14-year-old Jewish musical prodigy, who arrived in London in 1938 to escape the Nazi threat to Europe. Her show, The Pianist of Willesden Lane, tells the story of Jura’s life, marked by loss, separation, determination and triumph.

Golabek’s own piano playing brought her to this project. “In my thirties, I played the Grieg Piano Concerto with the Seattle Symphony. I woke up one morning and realised that it was the piece my mother so often talked about. I recalled the stories she told me, the people she’d mentioned, and events she’d recounted.

“I felt it had to be shared in a book, or perhaps a movie. If I could get something out there, I could inspire others with the powerful universal messages in my mother’s story.” Her vision came to fruition in 2002, with the publication of The Children of Willesden Lane, co-written with Lee Cohen, and chronicling her mother’s life from Vienna to the United States.

Golabek’s mission resulted in her crossing paths with Hershey Felder, a notable actor, playwright, composer, producer, and director who decided he would create a one-woman show around the story. “He took a chance on me,” says Golabek. “He created the Pianist of Willesden Lane, which opened in Los Angeles in 2012. He changed the course of my life, and allowed me to spread my mother’s message.”

The show proved popular the world over, a fact which Golabek attributes to the universality of its story. “The story forces you to ask the question: what do you hold onto in the darkest of times? My mother’s story is one of man’s humanity to man, which is the reason why I do this,” she says.

“I tell audiences that I’m alive because a decision was made by another generation to save the lives of 10 000 Jewish children. It’s essential that we ask what our purpose is on earth beyond ourselves, what our dreams are, and how we will pursue then.”

Golabek says that pairing this instructive lesson with music was the heart of the project. “I had a reputation for telling stories at the piano. It was how I sold the book to publishers – I gave them a taste of the music which was so much a part of it. The music is the secret arrow of the entire project. There are so many extraordinary stories in the lives of humanity. Music complements them, and gives them an edge.”

This combination is an essential education tool, she says. Golabek used every opportunity available to further her educational mission, working closely with various partners in book readings and performances to bring the valuable lesson of her mother to youth across America.

“I went around the US to do readings. Montgomery, Alabama, was the first. It’s in the deep south, and I was awed to see how African American students celebrated the story of a Jewish teen in World War II. It left me feeling ecstatic. Their response is the reason I keep going.”

Jura’s story is gaining traction among youth of all walks of life, including Asian, Hispanic, Arabic and others. Golabek recently held a show in London with the Holocaust Educational Trust for about 9 000 students, among them many Muslim youth who spoke of how connected they felt to her work. Some even asked when an Arabic translation of her book would hit the shelves, giving access to their parents with whom they are eager to share Jura’s experiences.

“The story shows us that instances of man’s humanity to man can reach into hearts and break down walls of hatred, prejudice, racism, and anti-Semitism,” says Golobek. “It opens us up to empathy and sensitivity to another person’s life.”

Youngsters find Jura’s story relevant, seeing in her a mirror of some of their own difficulties. “Young people tell me that the story is more relevant today than ever before,” says Golabek. “They relate to a young person having a dream, to kids banding together, growing up, and falling in love. They can relate to loss, and having the strength to overcome.”

Though it happened many years ago, this story clearly continues to resonate, not least with Golabek herself. Although Jura passed away before the book was published, Golabek says she hopes that wherever her mother is now, she realises she is an inspiration.

“I’ve come away with such admiration for who my mother was, her willpower to survive, and make something of her life. She could also be a total flirt, with every man in any room she walked into falling in love with her. She was magnificent and complex, and if I use her story to inspire others, then I think I’ve done something right.”