The Pianist of Willesden Lane

Mona Golabek is the daughter of Lisa Jura, a child piano prodigy born in Vienna, Austria, who came to England as a refugee in 1938 as part of the Kindertransport rescue operation. Her father, Michel Golabek, was a French resistance fighter, who received the Croix de Guerre. Mona’s grandparents died at Auschwitz.

Mona, deeply inspired by her mother’s story and the last words her mother heard at the train station – “Hold on to your music…. it will be your best friend”, became a concert pianist and has performed with major conductors and orchestras worldwide.  The Grammy nominee and prolific recording artist has been the subject of several documentaries including Concerto for Mona with conductor Zubin Mehta. Her discography includes the best-selling Carnival of the Animals and Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite, both recorded with her sister Renee. They feature the voices of Meryl Streep, Audrey Hepburn, Ted Danson, and Lily Tomlin.

Her mother is the subject of Mona’s acclaimed book, The Children of Willesden Lane, co-authored by Lee Cohen. The book has been translated and published in French, Italian, German, Hebrew, Spanish, Arabic, Hungarian and Polish.

In 2012, Mona made her debut in The Pianist of Willesden Lane, adapted from the book. The production, directed by Hershey Felder, has been celebrated by critics and audiences across the globe, with sold-out theatrical runs in New York and London. Ms. Golabek has received Best Actress Nominations from the New York Drama Desk and Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle.

In 2002, Mona formed the Hold On To Your Music Foundation with the help of the Milken Family Foundation, Facing History and Ourselves, and the Annenberg Foundation. Its mission is to foster hope through the power of storytelling and music and embolden the human spirit in the face of adversity.

Now, her foundation is partnered with the USC Shoah Foundation, creating a groundbreaking educational initiative, The Willesden Project, that brings her mother’s story to students and communities across the globe. To learn more about the Hold On To Your Music Foundation, visit www.HoldOnToYourMusic.org.

Hershey Felder (Adaptor/Director/Designer) American Theatre Magazine has said, “Hershey Felder is in a category all his own.” Following 28 years of continuous stage work and over 6,000 live performances throughout the U.S. and abroad, Hershey Felder created Live from Florence, An Arts Broadcasting Company, which has produced eighteen theatrical films to date. They include the recently-released The Assembly and Musical Tales in the Venetian Jewish Ghetto, Chopin and Liszt in Paris; Violetta, the story of Verdi’s Traviata; Dante and Beatrice; Mozart and Figaro in Vienna; the world premiere musicals Nicholas, Anna & Sergei; the story of Sergei Rachmaninoff; Puccini, the story of famed opera composer Giacomo Puccini; Before Fiddler, a musical story about writer Sholem Aleichem; Great American Songs and the Stories Behind Them, Leonard Bernstein and the Israel Philharmonic, a documentary.  Two seasons of programming are currently available at www.hersheyfelder.net   Hershey has given performances of his solo productions at some of the world’s most prestigious theatres and has consistently broken box office records. His shows include George Gershwin Alone (Broadway’s Helen Hayes Theatre, West End’s Duchess Theatre); Monsieur Chopin; Beethoven; Maestro (Leonard Bernstein); Lincoln: An American Story, Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin, Our Great Tchaikovsky, and A Paris Love Story. His compositions and recordings include Aliyah, Concerto for Piano and Orchestra; Fairytale, a musical; Les Anges de Paris, Suite for Violin and Piano; Song Settings; Saltimbanques for Piano and Orchestra; Etudes Thematiques for Piano; and An American Story for Actor and Orchestra. Hershey is producer and designer for the musical Louis and Keely: ‘Live’ at the Sahara, directed by Taylor Hackford; and writer and director for Flying Solo, featuring opera legend Nathan Gunn. Hershey has operated a full-service production company since 2001. He has been a scholar-in-residence at Harvard University’s Department of Music and is married to the Rt. Hon. Kim Campbell.