SEIKILO Museum of Ancient Music is the first interactive museum in the world where visitors can interact with all its exhibited artifacts, listen to the sound of all the exhibited ancient instruments, and have a premium hands-on experience with them at the end of the guided tour. A professional lyre player guides every tour, so pre-booking is necessary to visit the museum.
SEIKILO Museum of Ancient Music offers exclusively guided tours to provide you with the best possible experience, as all our exhibitions are interactive. Whether you schedule a private, group, or school tour, our visitors will be instructed through the entire collection by a professional lyre player performing live on various musical instruments. At the end, you will have the unique chance to enjoy a hands-on experience with one of our ancient Greek lyres.
Our Story: Since the 1st c. C.E. From the home of legends.
The history of SEIKILO Museum begins with its mother project and the starting point of this great journey of the lyre: the LUTHIEROS Lyre Workshop.
A brainchild of the musical Koumartzis family, the LUTHIEROS brand started its own journey as a small luthier workshop set up by Anastasios Koumartzis, the father of the family, and operating from the fabled village of Europos, the hometown of Seleucus Nicator, one of Alexender the Great’s most decorated generals.
It was the university thesis of the family’s middle son, Nikolaos Koumartzis, D.Phil., titled “Lyre 2.0”, that initiated what has become nothing short of a luthier revolution. From that point on, the LUTHIEROS workshop shifted its focus almost exclusively to the research and reconstruction of ancient musical instruments, such as the ancient Greek lyre. The unparalleled quality of its instruments has led the workshop to become the world’s premier expert on and manufacturer of ancient Greek lyres. It was that success that gave birth to the SEIKILO project, a safe place to house the reconstructions of a growing and blooming cultural endeavor and share hands-on experiences with its visitors.
Soon, the SEIKILO Museum was born, and thanks to it, our goal of reintroducing the lyre to the modern world has now evolved beyond reconstructing ancient musical instruments. If a musician or an enthusiast bought a lyre, they would need instructions on how to play it, sheet music with notation to follow, as well as lyre songs to listen to in order to be inspired by the virtuosos of the genre.
This endeavor would need a home separate from the workshop and situated in a more central location. And what place would be better than the legendary city of Thessaloniki, northern Greece’s greatest hub?
Thus, the SEIKILO Ancient World Music Museum was opened, a physical location to house the many projects undertaken by the SEIKILO team. With a brand-new home in the heart of the city, it continues to operate as the centerpiece of the entire SEIKILO family.
Our vision: Experience the ancient world - A museum of the future.
Like the lyre herself, the SEIKILO Museum of Ancient Music is as focused on the present as it is on the past. Our vision of reintroducing the lyre as a living instrument could not be served by a place simply reminiscing her glorious but ancient past. It also had to look toward the future, with a clear aim of contributing to the great tradition we are honored to belong to.
With that goal in mind, the new SEIKILO museum, now in a brand-new home, has once again opened its doors to visitors ready to explore something unique.
Although the museum’s centerpiece is and always will remain our collection of handcrafted ancient Greek lyres, our goal is to transform SEIKILO into a complete cultural bastion, embracing different endeavors and projects, both historical and artistic.
The SEIKILO brand’s vision can be divided into three main projects. The first is the museum itself, offering an immersive exploration of the godly instrument’s history, myth, and voice. A unique space solely dedicated to the lyre and her sister instruments that offers the perfect introductory experience to anyone interested in exploring her wonderful world.
However, as the successors to the Greeks, the Romans, would say, scripta manent, the written word remains. With that in mind, our next step was the creation of SEIKILO Publications, a publishing house devoted to the exploration of ancient music and the reintroduction of some of its more important texts to a modern audience. That, however, would be too narrow a focus for us. And so, we expanded, considering the legend of the lyre from as many facets as possible, building on the wealth of available sources and creating a catalog that can be of equal interest to the professional musician, the historian, and the layman, including ancient musicological texts, books of legend and literature, art books, and many more.
And then, there is the music.
As a living instrument, the lyre is our main focus, with our aim being for her voice to be once again heard as loudly and as far as possible. To that end, we not only offer lyre learning workshops, but our virtuoso musicians have recorded a number of incredible albums featuring the music of the lyre, recorded by some of the world’s foremost performers. Simultaneously, our SEIKILO YouTube channel features a multitude of videos presenting the music of the lyre, along with instructions for playing the instrument, original compositions, ancient melodies, traditional music, and even an animated series exploring the lyre’s myth.
In order to preserve culture, we must continue to create it. That is the creed of the SEIKILO museum, with all of its components. To that end, our museum hosts lyre workshops, always in conjunction with our sister project, the LyreAcademy. It is our sincere belief that not only the lyre should be taught, but that it can be taught as an instrument of choice for the aspiring musician, her voice amplified by the hands of hopeful students from all over the world and all walks of life.
A vibrant and multifaceted project, SEIKILO’s vision is one of continuity. Starting in the far past, with the birth of the lyre, and looking towards the future, to her continued and growing relevance in the modern world, it is our hope for SEIKILO to become a home-ground as well as a seed, from which the lyre’s new tomorrow can grow and flourish.
Our people: The Keepers of the Ancient Knowledge.
A project as multifaceted and broad as SEIKILO could only be truly realized by a group as diverse and as multifaceted as itself. Thus, our team of keepers of ancient knowledge comprises a variety of different disciplines and expertise, all brought together with the single purpose of expanding SEIKILO’s reach into the future.
First and foremost are our luthiers, the ones responsible for the creation of the incredible instruments one can discover in our exhibition. However, an instrument not being played is simply a museum piece and that would be contrary to SEIKILO’s creed. As such, our team includes some of the world’s greatest virtuoso players of the ancient lyre, who often work together with other incredible musicians to produce wonderful melodies and compositions on the godly instrument.
In our quest to expand the lyre’s reach, one of our main focuses is the visual medium, through SEIKILO’s YouTube channel. Through the work of our excellent filmmakers, editors, and camera operators, we make sure that the viewer is provided with regular content of the highest quality. The channel is also our creative director’s main focus and encompasses a broad selection of music videos, original pieces, as well as animated shorts and many more.
Finally, SEIKILO Publications employs a select team of researchers, writers, and literary editors whose dedication to their craft ensures the standard of excellence that we expect of ourselves regarding our books.
It is our goal that not only will the members of our team continue to advance and excel in their respective fields, reaching even greater heights of expertise, experience, and creativity, but that our small team will keep growing as SEIKILO’s journey of the lyre keeps expanding our organization’s reach and output in unprecedented and exciting ways.
Source: SEIKILO - Experience Ancient Greece
