Dr. James A. Grymes
Dr. James A. Grymes is an internationally respected musicologist, a critically acclaimed author and a dynamic speaker who has addressed audiences at significant public venues such as the United Nations Headquarters, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Policy Conference and the historic 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. He has been featured in interviews by The New York Times, ABC News and CNN, and has written essays for the Huffington Post and the Israeli music magazine Opus.
Grymes is the author of Violins of Hope: Instruments of Hope and Liberation in Mankind’s Darkest Hour (Harper Perennial, 2014). A stirring testament to the strength of the human spirit and the power of music, Violins of Hope tells the remarkable stories of violins played by Jewish musicians during the Holocaust and of the Israeli violinmaker dedicated to bringing these inspirational instruments back to life. The book, which composer John Williams described as “one of the most moving chronicles in the history of Western music,” presents a new way of understanding the Holocaust. Violins of Hope won a National Jewish Book Award.
Grymes is Professor of Musicology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
