NEW YORK –  On the evening of October 8 almost 500 of the closest friends of the Onassis Cultural Center NY were welcomed back to its expanded and renovated home by Onassis Foundation (USA) President Dr. Anthony Papadimitriou and the Center’s new Executive Director, Amalia Kosmetatou.

The opening Night Gala Performance and Reception presented featured Triple Echo,” a collaboration by choreographer Jonah Bokaer and composer Stavros Gasparatos that was designed as a musical and kinematic introduction to the new spaces featuring dancers, a string quartet and a percussionist.

The original work of art and music reflected the synthesis of spaces achieved by design of the firm of Perkins Eastman. Guests encountered a vastly expanded lobby area that connects through a stairway to a lower atrium, where they are greeted by a pool that gathers water from the lobby’s waterfall. Through the doors of the atrium they will enter a state-of-the-art exhibition space.

Guests offering congratulations and thanks mobbed Onassis Foundation (USA) President Antonios Papadimitriou, who told TNH when asked to comment about the unique affair, “It is difficult to make just a small statement about today because this is a very important night. It is the opening of the new Center with a new team and a new spirit.”

The special event emphasized the main elements of the Foundation’s cultural endeavors in New York and in Athens:  “Ellada, Europe, Education, and outreach – exostrefia in Greek, forming the thee “E’s,”  he said.

Triple Echo was the opening presentation of a four-day festival of talks, presentations, and performances titled “Narcissus Now: The Myth Reimagined,” and launches the Center’s annual Festival of Arts and Ideas, the Onassis Festival NY.