CULTURE

UN anniversary concert by Greece in National Assembly hall

«Greece: Poetry in Music» was the title of a concert at the United Nations Wednesday featuring works penned by renowned Greek composers Mikis Theodorakis, Manos Hadjidakis, Dimitris Lagios and Dimitris Papadimitriou, and poems by Greek poets C.P. Cavafy, George Seferis, the 1963 Nobel Prize winner, and Odysseus Elytis, 1979 Nobel Prize winner. Performed by the National Radio and Television (ERT) Symphony Orchestra and internationally acclaimed musicians, the music was conducted by Andreas Pylarinos and Steven White, and the songs interpreted by Mexican lyric tenor Rolando Villazon and Greek soloists Foteini Darra, Tassos Apostolou, and Andreas Smyrnakis. Organized by a different member country of the United Nations each year, this annual concert – first held in 1953 by then UN secretary-general Dag Hammarskjold, honors the United Nations Charter that was created in 1945, and is presented to an audience of UN member representatives. This is the first time that Greece, currently a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, had organized it. The Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation, under the auspices of the Foreign Ministry of Greece, and with the support of ERT, sponsored the concert to celebrate the 61st anniversary of the United Nations. Attended by about 2,000 people, the concert is part of a series of events to mark the conclusion of Greece’s two years on the UN Security Council. The same concert was also presented at Alice Tully Hall, at Lincoln Center, in New York yesterday evening.

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