Greta Beigel, concert pianist-turned-journalist, was

 raised in an Orthodox Jewish home in South Africa during apartheid. She earned a Performer's Licentiate in Music from the University of South Africa, and won a scholarship to study with famed pedagogue Aube Tzerko in Los Angeles. Her award-winning, scholarship piano recital program is featured as an Amazon MP3. In California, Greta reunited with her long-lost Yiddishe father, and went on to become an arts journalist, working on staff as writer and editor for many years at the Los Angeles Times.  

She is the author of three Jewish-themed books: The humorous/satirical "Mewsings: My Life as a Jewish Cat" (also in audio); the short story, "A Jew from Riga," about her efforts to learn more about her Dad's mysterious past, and "Kvetch: One Bitch of a Life," a memoir (paperback and e-book) about growing up an Orthodox Jew and a gifted pianist in South Africa during the apartheid era. Beigel now lives in Honolulu, Hawaii.