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Hiding in the Spotlight

A Musical Prodigy's Story of Survival: 1941-1946

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Hiding in the Spotlight

By: Greg Dawson
Narrated by: Suzanne Toren, Kevin Pariseau
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About this listen

The extraordinary story of a young girl whose musical genius saves her from the Holocaust.

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.

©2009 Greg Dawson (P)2013 Audible, Inc. Entertainment & Celebrities Music World Celebrity Piano

Editorial reviews

Be sure to keep the tissues handy when you're ready to listen to this inspiring, true story from one of modern Europe's darkest times. In the midst of all the violence and death caused by the Nazi army, comes the impossible story of a young musical prodigy and her will to survive. Hiding in the Spotlight, performed with a captivating delivery by veteran Suzanne Toren, is the amazing story of young Zhanna Arshankaya as she fled certain death and survived using her unparalleled ability to play piano.

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True story of these remarkably resilient sisters

Very well written by the son of the main character. I couldn’t stop listening. It was so descriptive - also very well narrated.

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