Kellie Brown, EdD is Chair of the Music Department at Milligan University, where she is a professor of music and the conductor of the Milligan Orchestra. Dr. Brown's book, The Sound of Hope: Music as Solace, Resistance, and Salvation during the Holocaust & World War II, was released in 2020. The Washington Post declared that she “…succeeded admirably in bringing together in one volume so much important research."
Sonia Pauline Beker, MA is a retired New York City educator, is the niece of Maestro Wolf Durmashkin, and the conductor of the Holocaust Vilna ghetto orchestra. She is the author of Symphony on Fire: A Story of Music and Spiritual Resistance During the Holocaust, the story of her parents and aunt, and how they navigated through the Holocaust as musicians who used their talents as spiritual resistance against fascism.
Israeli luthiers Amnon and Avshi Weinstein are the acclaimed restorers of the Violins of Hope - instruments that were played in Nazi concentration camps. These 80+ instruments are played by orchestras around the world to remind audiences to Never Forget the Holocaust and to pursue social justice.