Greek National Opera (GNO) concert celebrating the 200-year anniversary of the Greek Revolution of 1821, in collaboration with the Metropolitan Cathedral of Athens Wednesday, June 23, 2021 Opening Speech by George Agouridis, Member and Senior Legal Advisor of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Board of Directors Madam President of the Hellenic Republic, Your Grace, Ladies and Gentlemen, Today, we are celebrating together for a number of reasons. We are of course celebrating the concert itself—the first GNO event to take place with an in- person audience after a year of social distancing. Under the vision and guidance of its Artistic Director Giorgos Koumendakis, the GNO has continued to make great strides forward during this time. With committed support from the Foundation, it launched initiatives like the GNO TV online platform, which bridged the gap while performance venues remained shuttered due to the pandemic. At the same time, the GNO continued to work on the multifaceted anniversary tribute to the Greek Revolution in which we now have the pleasure of participating. Recently, we have been deprived of opportunities to be truly together, to express our social nature as humans, to talk face to face. But we have rediscovered the importance of public space as a shared space, as a place for coexistence and a canvas for co-creation—an approach that has long guided our international grantmaking, as evidenced by projects such as the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center. The Metropolitan Cathedral of Athens hosting tonight’s concert is a great demonstration of the importance of open, freely accessible, and comfortable space, and of cooperation in becoming more united and more adaptable as we move toward the future. A big part of tonight’s success is thanks to Protopresbyter Thomas Synodinos, a longtime friend and collaborator of the Foundation, whom we would also like to thank, among other things, for his tireless efforts toward the creation—here in the Metropolitan Cathedral a year and a half ago—of a beautiful new space to host the Cathedral’s relics, with the support of the Foundation. As Greeks, sharing in this country’s collective identity, we are naturally also celebrating, along with all of you, the 200th anniversary of the Greek Revolution, and we support the GNO’s anniversary program, which welcomes everyone, without exclusion, through its artistic tribute to 1821. On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, it is our great pleasure to be here tonight and to celebrate together with all of you. Thank you .