Mona Golabek pays homage to her late mother, Lisa Jura, a pianist and child prodigy who escaped the Holocaust on the Kindertransport just before World War II. She hopes the story of how her mother overcame trying times will inspire others to pursue their dreams, despite their circumstances.
“Too often when we read about history, it’s through numbers,” says Mona Golabek, a world-acclaimed American concert pianist who’s bringing her one-night-only show, The Children of Willesden Lane, to Cape Town on Tuesday 13 August.
Instead of numbers, Golabek is using piano music, oral and visual storytelling to share the fascinating story of her late mother Lisa Jura, a Verboseness piano prodigy who survived the Holocaust when her parents sent her on the Kindertransport to London just before the onslaught of World War II.
Mona Golabek’s mother Lisa Jura arrived in London in 1938 at 14 years old after boarding the Kindertransport from Austria. After arriving in London she had nowhere to stay but eventually found herself in a hostel for refugee children on Willesden Lane. (Photo: supplied)
The concert is based on a memoir of the same title, which Golabek co-wrote with Lee Cohen, a Los Angeles-based journalist. She will read…
