Waiting for the Barbarians: the concert that left the New York audience spellbound, exclusively on the Onassis Channel on YouTube

Photo: Beowulf Sheehan

“Waiting for the Barbarians” is a concert experience unlike any other, even when experienced through your screen. An exploration of love, loss, desire, and longing inspired by the poetry of C. P. Cavafy that permeates everything.

As part of the Onassis Foundation’s “Archive of Desire” festival held in April 2023 in New York City, renowned contemporary artists participated in a unique, sold-out concert at the towering gothic St. Thomas Church on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue.

World premieres of new music pieces by prominent international and Greek composers and performers, such as Laurie Anderson, Rufus Wainwright, Helga Davis, Petros Klampanis, Nico Muhly, Dimitris Papadimitriou, Paola Prestini, along with soprano Eleni Calenos, NYC-based orchestra The Knights, and Grammy Award-winning Brooklyn Youth Chorus, take audiences on a journey to new sonic worlds.

The concert’s digital premiere accompanies the opening of the new space of the Cavafy Archive in Athens, along with artistic events that celebrate the life and work of C. P. Cavafy, such as the performance “Constantinopoliad” by Sister Sylvester and Nadah El Shazly, presented from November 22 to 26 at the Onassis Library.

Concert program

“Chandelier (I went)”

Composed by Rufus Wainwright, arranged by Missy Mazzoli

Performed by Rufus Wainwright and The Knights

“Cavafy Ghost”

Composed by Helga Davis and Petros Klampanis

Performed by Helga Davis, Petros Klampanis, The Knights, and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, conducted by Dianne Berkun Menaker

“The Return”

Composed and arranged by Dimitris Papadimitriou

Performed by Eleni Calenos and The Knights

“Far Away Songs”

Composed by Nico Muhly, arranged by Nathan Thatcher

Performed by Eleni Calenos and The Knights

“Voices”

Composed by Paola Prestini

Performed by the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, conducted by Dianne Berkun Menaker

“Waiting for the Barbarians”

Composed by Laurie Anderson

Performed by Laurie Anderson, The Knights, and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, conducted by Dianne Berkun Menaker

Photo: Beowulf Sheehan

The new Cavafy Archive building in Athens

In November 2023, the Onassis Foundation is once again responding to the challenges of openness, accessibility, and dissemination of the Cavafy archive by investing in the creation of the Cavafy Archive, a space in Athens dedicated to the poet’s work and cultural heritage. Yet another international cultural heritage attraction opens for residents, scholars, and visitors under the architectural design of Flux Office by Eva Manidaki and Thanasis Demiris.

The Cavafy Archive, located on Frynichou Street in Plaka, hosts the literary and personal archive of the poet, 966 books from his library, and a collection of personal items and works of art with references to Cavafy. The aim of the space is to create a "home" for the poet's writings and books, his personal items and furniture, surrounded by works of art that enable us to gain an in-depth understanding of his growing impact on artists from his era to the present day―a "home" open to researchers and the public, open to all.