A LIVING TRADITION

Since 1955, the Hellenic Festival has been offering Athenians an annual date with the best in classical music, theater, and dance from Greece and around the world. Beginning at the end of June and through the first days of September every year, the Herodes Atticus Odeon in Athens and 3000-year old Theater of Epidaurus in Peloponessos, 100 miles from the capital, are the venues for a cultural smorgasbord that vindicates the diversity and good health of the performing arts.

The program for the 2004 festival looks likely to include such leading lights as the New York Philharmonic, the San Francisco Dance Company, and the Royal Theatre of London, as well as home-grown talent accompanied by the traditional bouzouki string instrument.

GEORGE DAM. VOULGARAKIS President of the Board of Directors, Hellenic Festival

George Dam. Voulgarakis, President of the Board of Directors, dreams of a Festival “where you can see how culture is now in Europe and in other countries, and how Greece lives today - you can see how we dance, how we sing, how our everyday life is.” A poet, author, and translator, Mr. Voulgarakis has long been active in cultural circles, previously as president of the National Opera among other responsibilities, and is eager to see the event become a force to produce original performances in the future.

After all, Greek culture, as Mr. Voulgarakis eloquently points out, “is not only ancient Greece. We are a country that lives, that creates, and has a tradition of thousands of years.”