Pia Beck: ‘A shining light‘ in Torremolinos

Torremolinos has honoured several celebrities who passed through the town during its ‘golden years’, along with others who settled in the ‘playground of the rich’ and who have left a lasting mark on its history. One of these is Pia Beck, the Dutch jazz pianist and singer who played an important role in the town’s cultural scene of the 1960s. Along with her partner, Marga Samsonowski, Beck opened the popular Blue Note jazz bar in Pasaje Begoña. They were the first two women to own a business in the street, and their bar attracted renowned musicians and celebrities, and it was also popular with the local LGBT community.

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The story of Pia Beck reveals a brave woman, a professional musician, an entrepreneur, a lesbian and a defender of the LGBT community. Described as “a shining light” in the fight for gay rights, she fought hard against a world that still did not give gay people the value and voice they deserved.

Beck was born in The Hague (Netherlands) in 1925. She began playing the piano when she was four and went on to gain worldwide recognition thanks to her international tours, especially in the US. However, it was not there that she decided to spend her days, but in Torremolinos. It is for this reason that the town hall named a passage in her honour in 2023.

Pasaje Pía Beck, located off Avenida Isabel Manoja, was promoted by the Pasaje Begoña association, a group set up to preserve the town’s intimate history within the LGBT community. The alleyway’s steps have been painted to represent piano keys. At the time of its inauguration last December, the president of the Pasaje Begoña association, Jorge Pérez, said, “Beck was an excellent ambassador of our town, an essential reference that has symbolised a lifestyle in which she made freedom, coexistence and respect visible throughout her life.”

Beck’s only descendant, her son, Gino Felleman, still lives in the town today.