Sharing my experience of Nikos Kazantzakis: An Odyssey in Music
Thursday, October 15, 2026 8 PM Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage of Carnegie Hall.

This continues my series of video essays of: When Art Meets… this time When musicians collaborate with novelists. From being a core foundation to a spiritual movement (Osho), to seeing how the Greek National Opera interprets his works, I am intrigued by how institutions partner with the arts and how people react to a novelist’s work to create new movements/art. Nikos Kazantzakis is a beloved writer who covers the spiritual and tellurian places my human heart is rooted in. I made the long trip to see his museum in Crete (and during a heat wave), and so I should be able to honor him in my NYC, too. This video is leads up to the event and includes the opening essay in the event program written by Dr. Maria Hnaraki of Drexel University.

I was teary eyed in the moments of seeing musicians inhabit their craft, and mostly: seeing the collective human experience of an audience inhabiting a frequency of musical joy and unity. This is the frequency I am at home with.

“For its first visit to New York, the Greek National Opera joins celebrations marking the Stavros Niarchos Foundation’s 30 years of grantmaking. The program presents a tribute to Nikos Kazantzakis, featuring landmark works by Hadjidakis, Theodorakis, Skalkottas, Mitropoulos, and Giorgos Koumendakis. Kazantzakis is one of the most widely translated Greek authors, whose writing has shaped musical creation in Greece for decades. His novels have inspired composers across symphonic music, opera, theater, ballet, and film.”