Music moved pianist Mona Golabek to tell the story of her mother, herself a pianist whose career was cut short when the Nazis occupied Austria.

Golabek says her mother, Lisa Jura, had dreamed of playing Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor at the Musikverein, Vienna’s symphony hall. That dream ended when 14-year-old Jura had to flee the Nazis via the Kindertransport and begin a new life at a children’s home on Willesden Lane in London, where she later survived the London Blitz.

When Golabek was engaged to play the same concerto in the same hall, she says, “I suddenly remembered the stories she told me.”

Golabek recounted those stories in “The Children of Willesden Lane,” a memoir she co-wrote with journalist Lee Cohen in 2002. Several years later, she was looking to adapt the book for the stage when she saw pianist Hershey Felder perform his one-man show about Beethoven at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles.

“I was so shocked by his brilliance that I decided to ask him for advice,” Golabek recalls. “He was moved by my mother’s story (and) offered to produce it. It changed my life.”

Felder’s adaptation, “The Pianist of Willesden Lane,” opened at the Geffen in 2012 and has toured internationally since. A feature film based on the book is due to start filming in 2021.

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley is staging the show Jan. 15-Feb. 16, with Felder directing. Felder is a familiar face at TheatreWorks, having staged his shows about Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Irving Berlin and himself for the company.

“He challenged me to work hard,” Golabek says of her director. “He’s exacting; his standards are of the highest.”

One of the biggest challenges in developing the show was choosing which pieces Golabek would play in the show to illustrate her mother’s story.

“What makes my mom’s story hopefully moving is the music,” she says. “We chose very carefully the pieces that would move the narrative forward. … It deepens my performance because I know its relationship to the story.”

When she plays Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” in the show, the pianist says, “You get the feeling of the old Europe you’re about to lose.”

Golabek plays not only her mother in the show but also the people she met on The Kindertransport and at Willesden Lane. She says her performance has deepened her connection to her family history.

“It takes more out of me every night,” she adds. “What she went through and what my grandparents went through making the choice to send the children away. It strengthens my respect for not only my parents but all survivors.”

Golabek has developed an educational outreach program to make sure future generations understand the importance of her mother’s story. She has performed for students, who read her book prior to attending the show, at venues such as the Dallas Holocaust Museum and Cape Town City Hall in South Africa, where Nelson Mandela gave his first speech after being released from prison in 1990.

“One of my big things is having young people experience the show and the book on which it’s based,” says the pianist. “They have deep relevance to what’s going on in today’s world.

“We need to find stories to inspire us to go down the right path.”

“The Pianist of Willesden Lane” runs Jan. 15-Feb. 16 at the Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro St., Mountain View. Tickets are $30-$100 at theatreworks.org or 650-463-1960.