The Score | Nashville’s Violins of Hope

A rare collection of restored instruments played by Jewish musicians during the Holocaust was the focus of a community-wide initiative launched this winter and spearheaded by the Nashville Symphony. The Violins of Hope, as the instruments are known, have been restored and refurbished by Israeli luthiers Amnon and Avshalom Weinstein, and were previously the subject of a book and documentary film. This was the instruments’ first visit to Nashville, where a free exhibit of the violins is on display at the Nashville Public Library through May 27. Two dozen Nashville-based organizations—including the Jewish Federation, Vanderbilt University, the Jewish Federation of Nashville and Middle Tennessee, and multiple houses of worship—collaborated to present performances, lectures, and other events. In March, Music Director Giancarlo Guerrero led the Nashville Symphony in John Williams’s Three Pieces from Schindler’s List and the world premiere of Jonathan Leshnoff’s Symphony No. 4 (“Heichalot,”), with orchestra musicians performing on the restored violins. Other events included “Voices of Hope,” a youth choral festival in March in collaboration with the Tennessee Holocaust Commission; and two photography exhibits: “We Shall Overcome: Civil Rights and the Nashville Press 1957–1968” and “Slavery, the Prison Industrial Complex,” both currently on display. The broader aim, says Steven Brosvik, Nashville Symphony’s chief operating officer, is to spur a public conversation and interfaith dialogue about hope, diversity, civil rights, and censorship.