From the stage of Carnegie Hall to her beautiful Shabbos table, Joni Miller sees Yad Hashem throughout her journey back to Yiddishkeit

IN a black and white photograph, a small girl sits at the piano, wearing her best party dress, a white one with short puffy sleeves.

Her hair is brushed straight and bangs neatly trimmed, though some stubborn curls are springing up at the sides. Eyes intent with concentration, her arms hover over the keyboard of the piano with expert posture. This was Joni Miller’s first publicity shot, used for her debut performance at the famed Carnegie Hall. She was just four years old.

Joni’s exceptional musical talent was discovered on a trip to visit family in Los Angeles. “I heard a melody on the radio, went over to the piano, and started playing it. I must have been three-and-a-half at the time,” Joni says. “My grandfather was in the room with me, and when he saw what I could do, he yelled for my mother, ‘Chanale! Chanale! You gotta come in here! You gotta hear this!’”

When Joni and her parents returned to their Flatbush home, where they lived a Jewish but non-observant life, her mother signed her up for lessons with a husband-and-wife piano teaching team in their neighborhood. The wife took the beginner students, and when they became more advanced, she would pass them along to her husband to continue their studies. It only took young Joni three weeks to “graduate” to the more advanced level. Six months later, she was playing a Mozart sonata at Carnegie Hall.

Joni studied with that teacher for a few years, but one day he told her mother, “I’ve taken her as far as I’m able to. She needs something more than I can give her.” At the age of seven, she was accepted to the Juilliard School, which was the beginning of her being trained for the life of a professional musician. Instead of making afterschool playdates, Joni was busy traveling from Brooklyn to Manhattan for two piano lessons a week in addition to other advanced music training. On top of that was the many hours of practicing that was required to be successful.

After five years of being at Juilliard, Joni started preparing for a big milestone event — performing a concerto, a solo, with a full orchestra. But tragically, Joni’s life was about to change. Her mother became very ill and no longer had the strength to take Joni into Manhattan for her musical training.