Jerome Hines holds the record of 41 years as a performer with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Hines was public about his Evangelical Christian faith and his journey as America's most well-known basso. 

Pamela Trainor Hines documents the man behind the music, often using Hines’s own words to reveal someone deeply committed to his family, faith and profession.  He publicly stated that he could hear God speaking to him and authored books on his conversations with God, and also how he was able to stay vocally healthy during his 60-year professional career. Hines, who died in 2003, is considered America’s best Boris Godunov.

The author, Hines’s daughter-in-law, explores his beginnings in Hollywood and the events that led him to the Met stage. She uses personal memoirs, letters, reviews, articles, interviews with family members and friends to allow Jerome Hines to tell his own story.  

America’s Basso details Hines’s performance in Moscow for Nikita Khrushchev on the eve of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the challenges of raising a son with Down Syndrome, his battle with skin cancer, and his original opera, “I Am the Way,” about the life of Christ. This is a stunning portrayal of a man who will long be remembered for his views on faith and for his impact on opera.

About the Author

Pamela Trainor Hines spent six years in the media after earning her degree in journalism from Boston University in 1984. Following music degrees from Old Dominion University in Virginia and the New England Conservatory in Boston, as well as a battle with Hodgkin's disease, she has devoted her life to her family and career as a jazz pianist and educator. She lives with her husband, David Hines, and daughters in Holliston, Massachusetts.