Judith Mok remembered: 'A true believer in the power of art'

Poet, writer & editor Annemarie Ní Churreáin celebrates the life and work of her friend, the renowned soprano, vocal coach and writer Judith Mok, who died earlier this month.

How to list all the talents of the late, brilliant Judith Mok? Acclaimed singer, vocal coach, poet, memoirist, and writer of three novels: such a list barely skims the edges of Judith's extraordinary life.

Born in a post-war Holland to Jewish parents trying to rebuild their shattered lives, she graduated from the Royal Conservatory of The Hague at a young age, and went on to perform in some of the world’s most renowned opera houses.

Hers was a glittering career speckled with music tours, books of critical acclaim, and adventures as a vocal coach with high-profile names like Grace Jones, Whitney Houston, Thom Yorke and many luminaries of the Irish music scene. Every bit as vital as her artistry in Ireland and abroad was her immense talent for friendship and her irrepressible flair for gathering artists together.

We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences

Listen: Judith Mok reads her poem Aviary for Sunday Miscellany

To attend a dinner party at Judith’s stylish apartment overlooking the Dublin 08 canal was to be served the best food and to be given an ear into stories that were often spun through a kaleidoscope of languages. To be a guest at her table was to be invited into thoughtful, vigorous debates that could spur meaningful shifts in a person’s attitudes and beliefs. Judith was always hungry to tell you about the last great novel she’d read, or the new star musician on her books, or her travel plans for next year (and beyond!). She was a magnetic and devoted friend, loved for her forthright opinions and legendary sass. Always formidable, always glamorous – she could be as tender as water. As others can surely attest, it was not unusual for Judith to take you aside quietly at any given party and slip you the perfect 'little gift’ – a piece of carefully chosen jewellery, or a trinket picked up in a vintage shop, or exactly ‘thee book’ that you needed in your life.

Watch: Judith Mok discusses her memoir The State Of Dark with France 24

Judith was a true believer in the power of art as a tool for survival. In her 2022 memoir, The State of Dark, readers and friends were gifted new insights into her perspective as a Second Generation survivor of the Holocaust. Speaking of her childhood in one interview she stated ‘the ground rule that poetry was the most important tool in life to survive, I learned as soon as my ears were conscious of language’. To her arts practice she brought a sharp intellect, rooted in a deep curiosity about the past and an insatiable appetite for the possibilities of the future ‘A war had come and gone through my parent’s lives. I held hands with ghosts…’. To hear Judith singing at the end of a night was to be transported back through a river of generations and to find yourself walking among the ghosts of her Sephardic people.

Judith Mok travelled the globe and called Dublin her home for over two decades. I’ll miss her bohemian soul, and the artful ways in which she could upend or transform a conversation with her intelligent mind and distinctive voice. Joining the outpouring of tributes, The Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris shared an online post that reads ‘Judith was a remarkable woman, a force of life, a powerhouse, with incredible life experience…’

Announcing her passing, Judith’s publisher, Antony Farrell of Lilliput Press, confirmed that Judith ‘died on the morning of Monday 26th [November 2024] with her husband, writer Michael O'Loughlin, keeping vigil. She was a doughty soul and personality, who bore her cancer fearlessly’.

Sad farewell to a dear Lilliput author Judith Mok, who died on the morning of Monday 26th with her husband writer Michael O'Loughlin keeping vigil. She was a doughty soul and personality, who bore her cancer fearlessly. pic.twitter.com/3ZNG70W7dW

— The Lilliput Press (@LilliputPress) November 26, 2024

My heart is with Michael at this tragic time and with Michael and Judith’s beloved daughter, the writer and musician Saar O’Loughlin.

Very few people can light a room the way Judith Mok lit up rooms, always with bright zest and fizzing with excitement for the next new chapter. Suaimheas sioraí dá hanam.

Annemarie Ní Churreáin is a poet, writer and editor from Donegal.