At this year’s annual International Opera Awards, a marquee event in opera, which took place on October 2 at the famous home of the Bavarian State Opera (Bayerische Staatsoper) in Munich, SNF was recognized for its longstanding and pivotal support to the Greek National Opera (GNO), both through the creation of its new home at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC) and through enduring support to strengthen its artistic outreach.
The award—in the philanthropy category—was received on behalf of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) by George Agouridis, a member of SNF’s Board of Directors and its Senior Legal Advisor. In accepting the award, he said, “Why have we supported opera-related projects at Covent Garden, Opéra national de Paris and Opéra National de Lyon, Brooklyn Academy of Music and Lincoln Center? We believe that everyone deserves access to life’s essentials, and art is essential.
The GNO's first performance for the 2024/25 artistic season, Iphigénie en Aulide & Iphigénie en Tauride, won an award in the New Production category. A major international co-production with the Aix-en-Provence Festival and the Opéra national de Paris, it will premiere on October 10. The production is supported by SNF's latest grant, announced in July 2024 to further strengthen GNO’s artistic outreach.
The total number of nominations, submitted by opera lovers around the world in categories covering emerging artistic work, an audience award, and sustainability, exceeded 16,000. The finalists were then shortlisted by an international jury of performers, opera critics, and administrators from 20 countries chaired by John Allison, editor-in-chief of Opera with Opera News and classical music critic for the Daily Telegraph. The winners in all categories, except the audience award, were decided by the jury.