Dr. James A. Grymes, a musicologist who published a book about the instruments played by Jewish musicians during the Holocaust, will deliver Bellarmine University’s
Guarnaschelli Lecture at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, October 23, in the George G. Brown Center’s Frazier Hall.
The lecture is presented as part of
Violins of Hope Louisville, a community collaboration of more than 30 events, exhibits, performances and experiences created to educate, inspire
and remember. The Violins of Hope are more than 50 restored instruments played by Jewish musicians during the Holocaust. These instruments have survived concentration camps, pogroms and many long journeys to depict remarkable stories of injustice,
suffering, resilience and survival.
The lecture is free and open to the public, but seats must be reserved online.
Grymes is an internationally respected musicologist, author and lecturer. In 2014, he published "The Violins of Hope: Instruments of Hope and Liberation in Mankind’s Darkest Hour," a stirring testament to the strength of the human spirit and the
power of music. It tells the remarkable stories of violins played by Jewish musicians during the Holocaust, and of Amnon Weinstein, the Israeli violinmaker who brings these inspirational instruments back to life with his son, Avshalom. "Violins of
Hope" won a National Jewish Book Award.
"The violin played a number of roles in Jewish lives in ghettos and concentration camps during the Holocaust," said Grymes. "But above all, the instruments represented strength and optimism for the future. Wherever there were violins, there was
hope."
Grymes is a professor of musicology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. His lecture at Bellarmine is presented in collaboration with the Jewish Federation of Louisville.
The Guarnaschelli Lecture Series brings leading arts and humanities speakers to Louisville. It is made possible by a grant from Dr. John and Marty Guarnaschelli of Louisville. Past Guarnaschelli lecturers include Isabel Allende, Wendell Berry, Gwendolyn
Brooks, Ken Burns, James Dickey, Norman Mailer, Joyce Carol Oates, Salman Rushdie, Ari Shapiro and many others.