Michael Levy

Michael Levy is a composer for the recreated lyres of antiquity, whose musical mission is to create an entirely new musical genre, which could best be described as a 'New Ancestral Music' - dedicated to creating new music for the recreated ancient lyre, featuring an exotic palette of ancient musical modes & intonations not heard in almost 2000 years. Basing his recreated lyre playing techniques from both illustrations of ancient lyre players and the various playing techniques still practised today in Africa, he has independently produced over 40 releases since 2008. Michael has collaborated with Rufus Wainwright, who arranged one of Michael's ancient lyre-themed compositions, 'Hymn to Zeus,' in two scenes of his second opera, 'Hadrian'. In 2022 - 2023, Michael collaborated with the iconic American artist Jeff Koons - his music for recreated ancient Greek kithara was the main soundscape of Koon's animatronic sculpture, Apollo Kithara' (2019-2022), displayed on the Greek island of Hydra & in Frankfurt. Taking lyre music mainstream, in 2024, Michael collaborated with Damon McMahon of Amen Dunes, who who featured Michael's ancient lyre music in the final track of his album, "Death Jokes". Michael's music has been featured in exhibitions at the British Museum, the Oriental Institute of Chicago, the Royal Ontario Museum, the Museum of the Bible in Washington DC & as the soundscape to several immersive ancient world-themed video games.