Hiding in the Spotlight: A Musical Prodigy's Story of Survival - 1941-1946

Description

By the age of six, Zhanna had developed a repertoire fellow students twice her age would envy. Scholarships to the most prestigious conservatories in the Soviet Union soon followed-conservatories that had produced legends like Rachmaninoff, Kogan, and Horowitz. In 1941 disaster strikes. The Nazi Army is smashing through the Ukraine en route to Moscow. Zhanna and her family are to be executed alongside thousands of others in the ravines of Drobitsky Yar. A few short miles from certain death, her father bribes a nearby guard, and she escapes into the forest with only the clothes on her back, a copy of Chopin's Fantasy Impromptu in her pocket, and her father's parting words echoing in her head: "I don't care what you do, just live." Adopting a new identity and ever fearful of recognition, Zhanna roamed the ravaged countryside. One lonely evening, the head of a local Nazi battalion hears her play. he is so taken with her exquisite interpretation of Chopin that little Zhanna soon becomes the performing darling of the Nazi forces.

Greg Dawson is the eldest son of Zhanna Arkashyna. Greg has been a journalist for over forty years and has worked for a variety of newspapers, including Boston Herald and Indianapolis Star. Greg is currently a columnist for The Orlando Sentinel. He lives with his wife in Orlando.

"Summoning all the colors of a Chopin prelude, Greg Dawson has painted a vivid picture of his mother from her fairy tale childhood in the Ukraine to her final escape from the Nazis and her triumphant voyage to America. A wonderful, staggering achievement." -- Mona Golabek, Grammy-nominated pianist and host of The Romantic Hours