On Saturday, December 2nd, in celebration of the Centennial of her birth, the US branch of the Hellenic Institute of Cultural Diplomacy gifted audiences with a virtual program, offering “Maria Callas in Three Voices.”
Shared across social media and easily recaptured in three separate video presentations for replay (on Facebook at HICDUSA), the program brought together, performances by supremely talented young sopranos in musical tribute with appearances by Sophia Papadimitropoulou (Athens), Eleni Calenos (New York), and Savanna Sokolnicki (Nashville).
Today through filmed performances the world can experience again the beauty and power of “La Divina.” It is this that we honor and celebrate.
Nashville, Tennessee, “The Athens of the South” and home to the magnificent 126-year-old full-scale replica of the Parthenon is also home to the US branch of the Hellenic Institute of Cultural Diplomacy, which was founded in Athens by Peter Kapsaskis.
One of 15 branch nations, we are united in love and admiration for Greece as cradle of philosophy, aesthetics, theater, scientific curiosity, and democracy. And we are inspired by the rising energy and bold initiatives of contemporary Greek culture, so recently expanded with the opening of the beautiful Maria Callas Museum in Athens.
Entering our fourth year, HICD-USA continues our mission to highlight the virtues of Culture, to promote cooperation and to build mutual trust. We pursue this vision through the establishment of strong cultural networks and robust and mutually beneficial cultural and academic collaborations with Greece.
It was the ancients, after all, who taught the world that aesthetics is ethics, and the sharing of culture is the greatest of gifts.
DeeGee Lester, President
Hellenic Institute of Cultural Diplomacy-USA