From Kimberley to the Queen

My story of Music and Culture, Heartbreak and Resilience
Auerbach, Geraldine

There are so many people whose lives Geraldine has enhanced that we read about in this book ... the many musicians who benefitted from the JMI Millenium awards; all performers and lovers of cantorial music; lovers of all types of Jewish music and the many people who have been introduced to it.
Janet Levin, Founding Editor of Jewish Renaissance

Geraldine surprised the world in showing us the breadth and depth of Jewish music. In her cracker of a book, we get an insight into her indomitable spirit and how she made it happen.
Lord Michael Grade   

This book is written with genuine enthusiasm which transfers seamlessly to the reader. ...  Music has clearly given the writer, a life of unexpected knowledge, joy and enlightenment. ... I recommend this memoir sincerely and wholeheartedly.  
Dame Maureen Lipman  

How does a girl from Kimberley get to meet the Queen? When asked to help organise a Jewish Music Festival in London in 1983, Geraldine Auerbach MBE had no idea it would change her life. What began as a favour became a mission. Importing and nurturing specialist ensembles, unearthing old and commissioning new works and working with artists, venues and community leaders, she presented Jewish music – from ancient prayer chants and medieval motets to Argentinian Yiddish tangos and cutting-edge klezmer – in art galleries, concert halls, synagogues and churches and iconic spaces like Canterbury Cathedral, the Millennium Dome and Trafalgar Square.
Her bold ideas, working with professors, scholars and figures such as Yehudi Menuhin and Valerie Solti, led to the founding of the Jewish Music Institute, a centre for teaching and research at the University of London.
Yet Jewish music is only one part of Geraldine’s remarkable story. She brings her childhood in separatist South Africa vividly to life, capturing the texture and spirit of a lost time and place. Ever alert to new possibilities, her imagination takes unexpected turns –  from creating a foundation for her late son-in-law, guitarist Bert Jansch, and shepherding guitars around the world, to transforming the strange isolation of lockdown into global online gatherings for Jewish music scholars, South African expats and 1960s medical graduates as well as embracing adventures with a duck and gardening projects with her grandchildren.
This is the engaging memoir of how one person’s vision, tenacity and resilience despite moments of despair and personal sadness, can make extraordinary things happen.

320 pages  48 images
Copyright: 17/02/2027