Tom Volf, president of the Maria Callas Endowment Fund
Through his work on Maria by Callas, Tom Volf discovers unique documents on the singer – Super 8 films, rare recordings, personal letters – entrusted by relatives and institutions, like treasures to be passed on.
Aware of the importance of preserving and sharing this heritage for future generations, he founded the Maria Callas Endowment Fund. As President, he is committed to preserving and disseminating the artistic and personal legacy of this icon, ensuring that her aura continues to shine well beyond the stage.
Visit the Endowment Fund website →
The Fund
The Maria Callas Endowment Fund is a structure under French law created under the regime of law of August 4, 2008 on the modernization of the economy (articles 140 et seq.). Based in Paris, it is dedicated to the preservation and dissemination of the legacy of Maria Callas.
The Fund today maintains an exceptional heritage: approximately 300 magnetic tapes, manuscripts, films, photographs, costumes and personal effects — brought together through donations from relatives, private acquisitions and participation in auctions.
Its main purpose is the creation of a Maria Callas Museum in Paris, which will bring together permanent and thematic exhibitions as well as a dedicated research center.
Timeline
2017 — Creation
The Maria Callas Endowment Fund was created at the initiative of those close to the artist and her favourite conductor Georges Prêtre (honorary president) — Tom Volf is co-founder and assumes the presidency. The Fund is the first recognized international non-profit institution dedicated to the preservation and promotion of the work and legacy of Maria Callas ; today he holds the largest Callas collection in the world.
2017 – 2018 — First exhibitions and first books
The Fund presents the exhibition Maria by Callas at La Seine Musicale (Boulogne-Billancourt, September 16 – December 14, 2017), 800 m² of scenography which welcomes more than 30,000 visitors in three months. The exhibition then travels to the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco (April 11–15, 2018), inaugurated by H.S.H. Prince Albert II. Tom Volf's first two books on Callas appear: Maria by Callas (Assouline) and Callas Confidential (La Martinière).
2019 — Letters & Memoirs
Tom Volf publishes with Albin Michel Maria Callas: Letters & Memoirs, an anthology of 350+ unpublished letters and unfinished memoirs of the singer — the result of five years of research.
2019 – 2023 — The show with Monica Bellucci
Theatrical adaptation of the book, directed by Tom Volf, performed by Monica Bellucci in her stage debut. Created at Théâtre Marigny in Paris (November 27, 2019), the play was performed in French, English and Italian, and presented in France, the United States, Greece, Italy, the United Kingdom, Spain and Turkey — until the Beacon Theater in New York on January 27, 2023, the centenary of Maria Callas.
2022 — European Music Center
The Maria Callas Endowment Fund joins the European Music Centre, Europe's largest network for music.
2023 — The centenary
The Fund is celebrating the artist’s centenary with an event season: staging of Norma by Bellini at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus in Athens (August 28 and 30), bringing together more than 110 artists on stage under the direction of Eugene Kohn; world cinema release of Callas: Paris, 1958, complete restoration in 4K and first colorization of the legendary recital given by Callas at the Palais Garnier on December 19, 1958. The film is broadcast in more than 60 territories by Piece of Magic Entertainment.
Support the Fund
The Maria Callas Endowment Fund is supported by individual donations and patronage. To contribute to the preservation and transmission of this exceptional heritage: