“A community-wide, interfaith project … will dominate Nashville’s arts and culture scene for the next several months,” writes John Pitcher in the February issue of Nashville Arts Magazine (Tenn.). Violins of Hope features “thirty-six historic violins that belonged to Jewish musicians during the Holocaust. These instruments … will be on display at the Nashville Public Library’s main branch March 26 to May 28. Twenty-four of those instruments will also be played and recorded in various concerts around town. In all, about two dozen Nashville arts, educational, and religious organizations will participate…. The Nashville Symphony played a leading role in bringing the Violins of Hope to Music City, and … has commissioned a new work by American composer Jonathan Leshnoff. His Symphony No. 4 ‘Heichalot’ will receive its world premiere … with the NSO’s violinists performing on the Violins of Hope…. [The Nashville Symphony] will host along with the Jewish Federation a Holocaust Memorial Day … The season will end …with a performance of Verdi’s Requiem, a work that the Nazis had once required inmates to perform at the Terezín concentration camp.” Said Steven Brosvik, Nashville Symphony’s chief operating officer, “We’re hoping our events drive a community-wide discussion about hope, diversity, civil rights, and censorship.”
Posted February 7, 2018
