Maria Callas Concert Tribute Under the auspices of the Consulate General of Greece in New York

A special tribute to Opera Diva Maria Callas was held on December 2nd, at the Archdiocesan Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Manhattan. The event “Maria Callas: Icons of Sound Festival” was organized by the Archdiocesan Cathedral of the Holy Trinity and The Treasury NYC, under the auspices of the Consulate General of Greece in New York. December 2 was chosen as a tribute to Maria Callas’s birthday. She was born on that day, in 1923, in Manhattan. She was also christened in the very same Church.

World-renowned opera guests were invited to participate in the concert, among them, soprano Eleni Calenos, acclaimed Metropolitan Opera mezzo-soprano Marina Poplavskaya and recipient of the 2005 International Maria Callas Grand Prix, soprano Nikoleta Rallis, Cynthia Elvira Ramos, bass-baritone Stefanos Koroneos, bass-baritone Costas Tsourakis, together with Cullan Bryant (piano), Craig Ketter (piano) and the Desdemona Quartet.

The program for the tribute included famous arias that turned Callas into a legendary diva. The event featured the New York premiere of Yale University’s awarded composer Robinson McClellan’s “Gather me: Sailing to Byzantium” setting of W. B. Yeats’s homonymous iconic poem from 1927, performed by the Desdemona Ensemble.

Born in Manhattan, Callas and her family lived first in Astoria and then moved to Washington Heights where she grew up. In 1937, Callas’ mother decided to move with her two daughters to Athens where Callas studied music and began her legendary career in opera. She died in 1977, of a heart attack at her home in Paris. She was 53 years old. At that time she had told friends she was preparing to write her autobiography for a New York publisher.