Calling Upon the Muses

The Department of Antiquities, Ministry of Transport, Communications and Works, announces that on Wednesday, 6th of April 2016, from 18.00 to 20.00 the musical event titled “Calling Upon the Muses” will take place in the Cyprus Museum, in collaboration with the SEIKILO group.

Over the last few years, the ancient Greek lyre has become more and more well-known internationally through numerous performances and concerts that have taken place from Japan to Canada and from Finland to Chile.

The event “Calling Upon the Muses” at the Cyprus Museum, invites the audience to examine reproductions of ancient instruments: the lyre (chelys and barbitos types), the phorminx, the cithara , the sambuca and the bendir. The reproductions of these ancient instruments have been designed and crafted by the Anastasios Musical Instruments Workshop (www.luthieros.com), in collaboration with the 3D Laboratories of the International Hellenic University (Thessaloniki) (reverse engineering & 3D modeling) and the Electronic Media Laboratory of the School of Journalism and Mass Communications of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (sound analysis).

Within the framework of the event the audience may examine, touch and play with the reproductions of ancient musical instruments, meet the people behind the project and learn about all the stages of its development. The audience can also discover how easy it is to express oneself through ‘playing’ an ancient lyre!

A short concert will also take place within the Cyprus Museum where the audience will have the chance to listen to the oldest surviving, complete musical composition, (the Seikilos Epitaph) and other surviving ancient melodies, along with modern improvisations with the accompaniment of an 11-string lyre (chelys type), vocals and duduk.