Balthasar Neumann Choir & Ensemble, Bach Mass in B Minor
When: December 20th at 12:00

Johann Sebastian Bach’s B minor Mass revolves around subjects that penetrate to the innermost depths of the soul: solitude and despair, joy and rapture. Music that gets under one’s skin. With Bach’s last great vocal work, which goes well beyond the scope of church liturgy, Thomas Hengelbrock and his Balthasar Neumann ensembles embark on a journey to the existential questions of life.

Traveling around the World at Christmas
When: December 26th at 18.00

Escort the entire family on a jolly musical jaunt, listening to Christmas melodies from all over the world and introducing the musical traditions and rhythms of these different lands.

New Year’s Opera Gala
When: December 30th at 20.30

Music-lovers’ enthusiastic response to the opera galas we have staged in recent years to celebrate the upcoming New Year has made them an integral part of Athens’ festive season. Under the baton of the talented Kornilios Michailidis, distinguished opera singers Christina Poulitsi, Tasis Hristogiannopoulos and Hristoforos Staboglis demonstrate their exceptional vocal talents in popular arias and duets from the magic world of Italian opera


Photo credit: Alexandra Trianti.

Faithful, despite the unprecedented circumstances, to its annual, long-standing date with the public, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center welcomes the Christmas season with a variety of shows that will be transmitted online through live streaming! 

Christmas Tales at the Lighthouse: Sherlock Holmes and the thief of Christmas
When: December 23rd - January 5th

Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous hero invites us to follow him into the magical world of Christmas-time London. Amidst the joyful buzz of the city, where children sing carols and everyone exchanges gifts, Sherlock Holmes has only one thing on his mind: the case of the thief of Christmas. He looks for the blue sapphire, chases after the mysterious turkey and, under every snow-capped roof, finds clues that will bring him even closer… not just to the answer to the mystery, but to the meaning of Christmas.

New Year's Eve at SNFCC
When: December 30th at 22:30 

The evening's festivities will begin at 22:30 with a special artistic program in association with the Greek National Opera. Let's all welcome 2021 together, even if we're apart, with wonderful images and sounds that will reach into every home, in every corner of Greece. 

In celebration of the 200th anniversary of the Greek Revolution of 1821, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC) is presenting a series of events, titled Faces of the Hero, which was created and is implemented through an exclusive grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF).

The heroic example set by the fighters of the Greek Revolution provides the impetus for an examination of the concepts of “hero” and “heroism” throughout time, through the prism of the performing and visual arts, dance, readings, lectures, exhibitions, and educational programs for adults and children. The connecting link permeating all the programs is the question, “How has the heroic ideal been reflected through art?”

The selection of the multifaceted thematic programming is a reflection of the mission that drives the SNFCC overall: to be an open public space that offers cultural experiences, entertainment, and education for all. The anniversary programming is centered around activating the SNFCC’s premises and developing synergies with its affiliate organizations, the National Library of Greece (NLG) and the Greek National Opera (GNO), while also focusing on investing in the organization’s artistic outreach.

 

The dawn of 2021, after a particularly challenging 2020, finds the world of sports hit hard by the pandemic and all the implications covid-19 brought in the industry of sports. The beginning of a new year, filled with hope and promise, is the ideal time for the organization of a unique Sports Industry Conference, the first of its kind in Greece, featuring some of the most prominent industry professionals from around the globe, which aims to educate and address significant topics of sports.

“Front Runners in Sports Management 3.0”, the online sports conference organized by the award-winning Active Media Group along with the Sports Management Society of Deree – The American College of Greece, on Thursday, January 21 and Saturday, January 23, 2021, comes to shed light on the uncertain future of sports management in Greece. Sports continue to have a growing impact on the global economy through investments, public infrastructure, resource mobilization and creation of new professions and job positions, despite the devastating implications Covid-19 brought to world economies.

Throughout both days of the conference, participants will have the opportunity to follow the speeches of remarkable representatives of sports and develop their professional network in the field of sports management.

Among the keynote speakers are representatives from the NBA, the top basketball league in the world. Specifically, Nic Barlage, President of Business Operations of the Cleveland Cavaliers the youngest team president in the NBA and a representative from the Milwaukee Bucks’ marketing department. Additionally, “Front Runners in Sports Management 3.0” will feature the following keynote speakers: Bobby Goldwater, one of the most respected and innovative executives in the sports, entertainment and venue management industry from Georgetown University, Zack Klima Founder & CEO of Wait Time, an innovative technology company having Jeffrey Jordan, the son of Michael Jordan as a co-founder, Nigel Geach, Senior Vice President of Global Motorsport of Nielsen Sports, having worked in sports sponsorships for more than three decades, mainly with clients in the motorsport behemoth Formula 1, the Greek CEO of the Basketball Champions League, Patrick Comninos who managed to develop Basketball Champions League into one of the fastest growing sport properties in Europe and Rick Pitino, Basketball Hall of Fame as coach & basketball coach of the Greek National Team.

The “Front Runners in Sports Management 3.0” webinar will attract the interest of the following sectors: AI, Education, Events, Basketball, Football, Motorsports, Social Media, Sport for Development, Sports Tourism, Sports Marketing & Management. More information on the schedule and the webinar’s speakers will be announced in the upcoming weeks. The conference is produced by the experienced team of Active Media Group, the best Sports Marketing company in Greece within the last years and the leading private educational institution in the country, Deree – The American College of Greece.

The Sylvia Ioannou Foundation, the National Historical Museum, and the Municipality of Athens are organizing a special exhibition in memory and honor to the heroes of 1821, as part of the celebration for the 200th anniversary of the Greek Revolution. 

Two centuries after the national polygenesis, the National Garden, an emblematic landmark of Athens, hosts an outdoor exhibition, on Vasilissis Sofias Avenue, which brings to the fore the people who fought and sacrificed so that Greek people today can enjoy freedom and democracy. 

The exhibition presents 22 paintings with some of 320 unique faces painted by Benjamin Mary (1792-1846), Belgian diplomatic representative of Greece.

The drawings were made naturally, mainly in Athens, between 1839 and 1844. They are published for the first time, giving us the opportunity to meet known and unknown figures of the Greek Revolution and Ottoman Greece, through the sensitive and penetrating gaze of a European artist.

Fighters, politicians, priests, scholars, philhellenes, everyday people, pose patiently for the portrait and Benjamin Mary manages to capture their expression in a unique moment in history.

---

Whether you’ve just arrived in town – or have been here for years – Athens always has new secrets to share! 
This is Athens is the official guide to this captivating city of ancient energies and booming urban culture. Compiled by a team of specialist local writers, This is Athens brings you an authentic and intimate portrait of a living Athens beyond the guidebooks – along with daily curated listings of all the best events and great weekend inspiration all-year round. From must-know neighbourhoods and emerging art hubs, to gourmet hotspots, cool shopping and the buzziest bars, This is Athens will help you to get the most out of living in Athens!

Thank you This is Athens for your contribution as an XpatAthens Partner.

Experience the passion and flame of Flamenco with Carmen, the legendary performance of Antonio Gades and Carlos Saura that sealed flamenco! 

A great choreography showing the explosive power and intensity of emotion in traditional Spanish flamenco. Passion, emotion, love and freedom are synonymous with Carmen. Leading soloist Vanessa Vento lives and breathes Carmen, emphasizing the many faces of this character, a woman, passionate and freedom fighter, but unstable in love as she flirts with men, inspiring desire, rivalry and jealousy between men and women. 

Carmen is undoubtedly the most fascinating opera character of the French composer and pianist Georges Bizet, inspired by the novel of the same name by Prosper Merimee. 

The 21st Century Dance Masterpiece, Akram Khan's Giselle, is coming to your home in February from the Christmas Theater On Line!

This new version of perhaps one the most important romantic ballet performances offers  a great opportunity to relive the moving story of love, betrayal and redemption in modern times.

One year on, the resourceful and resilient galleries of Athens continue to find engaging ways to captivate our senses and channel the city’s bold artistic impulses, while their doors remain largely shuttered. This is Athens' resident art expert, Kiriakos Spirou, lists five fascinating digital exhibitions to quench your culture cravings in this month of March.

Gardening at Zoumboulakis Galleries

With spring’s arrival, the Zoumboulakis Galleries has created Athens’ first indoor botanical garden exhibition. In the vast basement space of its Kolonaki Square site (there’s a second Zoumboulakis space on Kriezotou dedicated to design), you can take a virtual stroll through green-thumbed works by twenty artists, both from Greece and abroad. The exhibition Gardening is a thought-provoking take on our pandemic-struck world, as well as a witty “return to nature” through a mix of painting, sculpture, installations and video. Thanks to the fresh eye of curator Georgia Liapi, who recently joined the gallery, the exhibition combines works by young and emerging artists, such as Yorgos Maraziotis and Melina Mosland, with more established gallery stalwarts like Stefanos Rokos and Nikos Tranos.

The Studio of Yiannis Pappas by the Benaki Museum

The late great sculptor Yiannis Pappas was a pivotal figure of Greek post-war art, not least because of his many commissions for public sculptures in cities and institutions all around Greece (if you pass Zappeio park, make sure to clock his statue of Alexander the Great on the corner of Amalias Avenue). Pappas’ former Athens home and studio in Zografou is an extraordinary place, filled with his bronze and marble sculptures, studies and drawings. In fact, this is the largest trove of the artist’s work, which he donated to the Benaki Museum in 2002, three years before his death. This well-produced virtual exhibition leads you step by step through the studio, with sound-guide snippets in several languages attached to important exhibits.

Posterity at The Blender Gallery

A small cultural hub for the southern suburbs of Athens, The Blender Gallery in glitzy Glyfada stages several exhibitions and live events throughout the year. Its current show (curated by Nestoras Katsimichas) features an impressive haul of 100 rare posters collected by Bosnian Serb engraver Milan Zunic. Originating from the 1960s onwards, the posters were produced in Eastern European countries (including former Eastern Germany), and are great examples of how graphic design and communication can leave room for authentic artistic expression.

Stella Kapezanou at Evripides Gallery

One of the most imaginative young Greek contemporary painters around, Stella Kapezanou is in constant dialogue with pop aesthetics and art-history motifs, using a very personal, colour-drenched visual language. Highly-stylised people inhabit surrealistically patterned backgrounds, and albeit they appear immersed in glamour and luxury, their decadence is undermined by subtle humour and irony. Kapezanou is staging her second solo show at Kolonaki's Evripides Gallery, which is also presented in satisfying detail in the gallery's virtual viewing room.

Privacy, childhood, the family, safety and our need to belong are some of the primal themes explored in this digital display that features exhibits from Athens’ newest culture hub, the National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST). Feels like home examines how artists have been engaging with these universal concepts of home in their work, with items by established Greek and foreign artists (there’s even a Magritte sculpture included). The exhibition is one of three chapters of the digital project Visualising Humanity, organised by the Network of Contemporary Culture Museums of the Ministry of Culture.

---

Whether you’ve just arrived in town – or have been here for years – Athens always has new secrets to share! 
This is Athens is the official guide to this captivating city of ancient energies and booming urban culture. Compiled by a team of specialist local writers, This is Athens brings you an authentic and intimate portrait of a living Athens beyond the guidebooks – along with daily curated listings of all the best events and great weekend inspiration all-year round. From must-know neighbourhoods and emerging art hubs, to gourmet hotspots, cool shopping and the buzziest bars, This is Athens will help you to get the most out of living in Athens!

Thank you This is Athens for your contribution as an XpatAthens Partner.

 

3 days of science, technology and innovation | 60 virtual activities sessions | 50

esteemed speakers from 8 countries | 3 Nobelists | 100 experiment demonstrations |

celebrity science | chemistry shows | documentaries | free parallel activities for all ages

In times of hardship, heroes emerge! Athens Science Festival comes back with a new, digital format to introduce us to the "Era of heroes"! From March 27 to March 29, 2021, the largest science festival in the country will be back, online and in live broadcast, from the Technopolis City of Athens, to celebrate the latest developments in the fields of Science, Technology, and Innovation but also shine a light to the relationship between Art and Science.

The pandemic and its devastating effects on the entire planet bring to the forefront a new order of heroes, who stem primarily from the field of science! Their superpowers? Their unparalleled will to offer and their sense of duty towards their fellow humans, fueling them to fight every day in order to achieve the impossible; expand the boundaries of human knowledge, and provide viable solutions. Since not all heroes wear capes, Athens Science Festival 2021 will honor scientists of all fields!

Through a series of exciting live talks, workshops, experimental demonstrations, virtual exhibitions and other innovative digital activities, attendees will have the opportunity to get indroduced to some of the most distinguished scientists in the world. In this year’s Festival, everyone’s participation will be dynamic. Internet visitors, instead of being mere spectators of the programmed activities, will have the opportunity to participate online, thus turning the Festival into a digital, multidimensional scientific event!