GAI Café

This month, we’re beyond excited to spotlight the incredible Janet Horvath, a lifelong performing classical musician, soloist, author, speaker, and educator! Canadian-born Janet was the Minnesota Orchestra’s associate principal cello from 1980 to 2012, captivating audiences worldwide.  Check out Janet’s full bio below for more.

Kaffee and Kuchen $7
Piece of Kuchen $5
Cup of Kaffee $2

Available for purchase with cash or credit card.

Janet Horvath’s Bio

Janet Horvath was born in Toronto, Canada. A lifelong performing classical musician,
soloist, author, speaker, and educator, she was the Minnesota Orchestra’s associate principal cello
from 1980 to 2012. She has performed in recital, chamber music, and as soloist with orchestras
throughout the US, Canada, and Europe. An advocate for injury prevention for musicians, Ms.
Horvath has given masterclasses and seminars for orchestras and conservatories from coast to
coast and has appeared on CBC, BBC, and NPR radio stations, and PBS television. She is a
popular guest speaker, in person and on podcasts, and conducts lively conversations about cello
playing, the importance of the arts and music in particular, injury prevention, and genocide
prevention.

The Cello Still Sings—A Generational Story of the Holocaust and of the Transformative Power of
Music, her recently released book, is a sweeping and true history of three generations
darkened by the long shadow of the Holocaust. Janet’s parents, both classical musicians and
Holocaust survivors, buried who and what they were before. When her father discloses a deeply
hidden secret just weeks before his death, about playing morale-boosting programs in the
Displaced Persons Camps from 1946-48, two with Leonard Bernstein, it is the spark, which
leads to unraveling the past. The story traces Ms. Horvath’s career and that of her father and is a
vivid and fast-paced evocation of her parents’ return to life, human resilience, the quest for truth,
and music’s healing power. The book features many threads including World War II and
Hungarian history, Hungarian foods, the effects on the next generation, refugee life, taking care
of aging parents, becoming a professional musician with behind-the-scenes vignettes, humor,
resilience, hope, and reconciliation. Ms. Horvath has given over 60 presentations to date to
various sized groups holding courageous conversations about anti-Semitism, racism and
exclusionism.

Her first book, Playing (less) Hurt – An Injury Prevention Guide for Musicians, received
international critical acclaim, winning a gold IPPY award in 2009.

Other publications include for The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Minneapolis StarTribune
and international music magazines. She completed her Master of Music degree from Indiana
University and MFA in creative writing from Hamline University, in Saint Paul, Minnesota and
her popular classical music articles appear on Interlude HK. www.interlude.hk

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kp8DBVZAVOA
FOX NEWS feature: https://www.fox9.com/news/minnesota-family-unearths-recording-by-holocaust-survivor

Reviews of The Cello Still Sings by Janet Horvath

“Horvath’s prose is lyrical (‘Consider a time when hell was on earth, when hands accustomed to
a musician’s bow, a writer’s pen, a doctor’s scalpel, a painter’s brush, a tailor’s needle, wielded
shovelfuls of rocks, limestone, or human remains’) and brutally honest as she explores how
trauma leads to complex dynamics…
In a world in which antisemitism is on the rise, Horvath’s story—equal parts disturbing and
inspiring—is necessary and timely reading.
A poetic, nuanced tribute to the power of music and family.”
—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Ms. Horvath’s ability of unrestrained self-reflection combined with her eloquent writing style,
her way of summarizing complex events into comprehensible paragraphs will not let you put the
book down.
— Jewish Book World

Janet Horvath tells [her parents] gripping story with honesty and humour in an engaging style
as if talking to a friend.
—THE STRAD music magazine

“The Cello Still Sings” is a must-read for those who want to understand children of survivors. It is
painful, as she writes about the thousands of Hungarian Jews murdered near the end of the
war; heroic, as her parents begin a new life in Canada; tender, as she coaxes her father’s stories
out of his memory, and uplifting, as she plays in Landsberg in honor of her father and the
thousands of Jews who didn’t survive.
—Saint Paul Pioneer Press