Michael Levy: Composer for Lyre

Now available from all major digital music platforms, I am delighted to announce the release today of my antidote to the chaos of the modern world."Musica Lyra" - an ancient Roman-themed album inspired by themes from stoic philosophy. Here is Spotify album link:

https://spotify.link/djKwY2RXTBb

The album explores through music, the turbulent emotions of unresolved desires, grief, regrets, longings & sorrows which can cloud the positivity of life, which though endurance of the human spirit & the focus of stoic meditation, can be overcome, until the ultimate stoic ideal of “Amor Fati” - developing a love of fate, no matter what obstacles we may encounter during the brief enigma of our conscious experience of life.



As I have no record company, I literally soley rely on the support of my much valued listeners in order to ‘get my music out there’ to new sets of potentially receptive  ears - if any of you are able to kindly share news of the album's release across social media & include tracks in new Spotify playlists & post album reviews on platforms such as iTunes or Amazon, this would be greatly appreciated!

Warmest wishes,

MIchael

I am pleased to announce that a selection of my music from my 2020 album, “Echoes of Ancient Mesopotamia & Canaan” have been featured as the soundscape to an exhibition currently on at the Israel Museum of Jerusalem, entitled “The Feast” .

The exhibition explores banquets, feasts, and food in the Ancient Near East in the 4th-1st millennium BCE, presenting them as the ideal setting for the negotiation of ideologies, and as a symbol of political and social status. The exhibition is on display between May 12th 2023 - December 31th 2023.

In particular, I was delighted to learn that my music will be being played in the very same gallery which displays the iconic Megiddo Ivory - a depiction of a Canaanite-style lyre from Megiddo, which is about as close as we can get to an idea of what the actual lyre of King David might have actually looked like:



 

In April, I was pleased to be invited to host an entire hour long Zoom concert and talk on the Biblical Lyres for the Spring and Biblical Archaeology Festival 2023! 

The concert and talk was in short, an evocation of the music of the ancient Biblical Temple lyres of the Levites and the lyre of King David, performed on modern recreations of the 10-string Biblical Kinnor and an actual replica of a Canaanite-style lyre discovered in Egypt - enjoy!
 

EPIC! The iconic American artist, Jeff Koons, just contacted me again! 

Following the use of my music in Jeff Koons's exhibition last year on Hydra of his new sculptures of Apollo, my ancient Greek kithara-themed music will ONCE AGAIN be the main soundscape in a new exhibition to include his sculpture "Apollo Kithara" at Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung in Frankfurt. 

Almost as if Apollo himself approved of this collaboration, by pure serendipity, for my live lyre concert at the British Museum back in January 2023, I was astounded to learn that I would be performing in the very next gallery to where the original Greco-Roman sculpture of Apollo with Kithara, which Koons based his new sculpture on, was actually located!
 

The exhibition, "Machine Room of the Gods: How our Future was Invented", will be on view from 8th March - 10th September 2023:

https://www.liebieghaus.de/en/machine-room-of-the-gods

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My ancient Greek-themed lyre music is now the soundscape to an exhibition at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts! 

The exhibition, "Making Past Present" features the work of Cy Twombly, a painter and sculpture who found much inspiration in the philosophy and relics of the ancient Greeks:

https://www.mfa.org/exhibition/making-past-present-cy-twombly

The tracks featured, are "Orpheus's Lyre" from my 2013 compilation album, "Musical Adventures in Time Travel" & "The Only Thing Certain is Uncertainty", from my 2023 album, "Ataraxia (Inner Harmony").

The exhibition featuring my music, will be on display at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts between 14th January - 7th May 2023.
 

My music is to become a 'National Treasure'!

For the first since 2013 and for the first time I have had any official live performances since the restrictions of the pandemic, on 23rd January 2023, my live lyre music will once again be the soundscape to a British Museum Member's Evening:

https://www.britishmuseum.org/.../members-evening-23-January

The event is exclusively for British Museum Members - quite possibly the perfect potentially interested new target audience for my musical mission, to continue where the ancients "left off"!

I will be providing a Greco-Roman, Mesopotamian & Ancient Egyptian-themed soundscape and will be performing near the Greek Galleries, between the following times:

18.15 – 18.45
19.14 – 19.45 
20.15 – 20.45

Hope to see some of you there!

I am amazed to finally be able to publicly announce my collaboration with the iconic American contemporary artist, Jeff Koons!

My music for recreating ancient Greek kithara is now the main soundscape of Jeff Koon's new animatronic sculpture, "Apollo Kithara" (2019 - 2022) on display inside Jeff's magnificent recreation of a Temple of Apollo, on the Greek Island of Hydra. The exhibition is at the DESTE Foundation Project Space, Slaughterhouse, which is a free contemporary art space open to the public on the island, from 21.6.2022 to 31.10.2022:  

https://deste.gr/hydra/jeff-koons/

Jeff is featuring 20 tracks of my recordings of the recreated ancient Greek kithara - the lyre of the professional musicians of classical antiquity, associated in ancient Greece with the god Apollo. He wanted to play my music in the exhibition space as a way to celebrate Apollo (god of music, Olympian god of the sun & light) and the history of the Mediterranean.

According to Jeff's agent, Jeff wanted to incorporate my music as follows:

"With the recordings of your ancient kithara music, Jeff would like to overlay at times acapella recordings of contemporary singers, such as, David Bowie, Robert Plant, Lady Gaga, Lil Uzi Vert, and others. For Jeff, mixing the ancient sounds of the kithara with the acapella vocals of contemporary singers will be exhilarating and play with aspects of time, which will also be visually evident in the exhibition. Jeff seeks and desires a sensual quality to the experience of the exhibition and believes the music will amplify this connection to the past, present, and future."


 

I am pleased to announce the publication on YouTube, of my interview with the World History Encyclopedia - the most detailed discussion on my musical mission to date! 

The interview features demonstrations of almost all my recreated ancient lyres, all the background about my musical inspiration, with detailed discussion on topics ranging from the myth of monophony in ancient music, ancient tuning systems derived from Pythagorean numerical cosmology, how ancient lyre playing techniques can be inferred from ancient classical texts & from how lyres are still being played throughout the continent of Africa today: 
 

I am delighted to announce that one of my arrangements for solo lyre of the 2000 year old ancient Greek "Song of Seikilos", from my 2015 album, "The Lyre of Apollo: The Chelys Lyre of Ancient Greece" is featured on the covermount CD of the 2021 November/December edition (Issue Number 172) of Songlines Magazine!

The magazine can either be purchased in print or digitally downloaded 

There is also a full page story in the magazine, on the inspiration behind my ancient-themed lyre music:

I am delighted to announce that My ancient-themed lyre music is now both the main theme & entire soundscape, of the brand new mod of the video game from Paradox Developement Studio, 'Crusader Kings III', entitled: "APOTHEOSIS: THE HELLENISTIC AGE"


Featuring a wide selection of my ancient Greek-themed music, the main theme of the mod, which automatically plays each and every time the mod is first opened, is my track "Paean to Ares" - from my 2016 album, "Kithara of the Golden Age".

The awesomely ancient historically immersing mod of the game is available now, from here.

Who needs really boring stuff, like a 'record company'!