Audrey Lecorgne & Julian Cuvilliez
Archaeomusicologists · The music of ancient worlds
THE MUSIC OFANCIENT WORLDS
HOVER EFFECT
“Music is so naturally united with us that we could not be free of it even if we wished to be.”
GLOBETROTTERS OF ARCHAEOMUSICOLOGY
ALL OVER THE WORLD
Audrey Lecorgne and Julian Cuvilliez spend much of their time on missions. In the storerooms of museums and major international institutions, they study, digitise and reconstruct musical instruments thousands of years old. They also spend time living alongside Indigenous communities, to understand, from those who are their direct heirs, musical practices handed down from the dawn of time.
A human, artistic and scientific adventure that they live as a family. The rest of the time, they are on tour, with concerts, lectures and exhibitions, to share as widely as possible these adventures carried out in the colours of the music of first peoples, which, from one continent to another, beat as a single heart.
Audrey Lecorgne chairs, and Julian Cuvilliez directs, the Pôle de Recherche, d’Interprétation et d’Archéologie Expérimentale (PRIAE), whose teams work from Mexico City to Heraklion, from Cologne to Edinburgh. Their work includes the 3D digitisation of the bust of the Bard with the lyre (GALATÉE 202 mission), one of the oldest depictions of a chordophone found in France; the LEIA project, devoted to the Concevreux lyre bridge held at the Cologne museum, whose permanent galleries they helped to redesign; and the SPEAR mission, centred on burial 195 of the Avicenne necropolis, which held the remains of the oldest known musician of the Celtic world. In 2025, the ITZAMNA mission took them to the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City, to study and reconstruct a collection of Maya instruments listed as a national treasure.
An instrument maker at the Atelier Skald and founder of the Lyre Academy, Audrey Lecorgne brought the Celtic lyre back into music teaching programmes, where she teaches experimental archaeology applied to instrument making. A songwriter, composer and multi-instrumentalist, Julian Cuvilliez founded Ar Bard Production. He conducts international ensembles bringing together musicians from the Royal Academy of Music in London and from the conservatoires of Scotland and Jerusalem (Antika Arkana, The Dragon and the Dove), and writes original scores for historical films and documentaries (Odysséa, Le Pacte Gaulois), awarded in Cannes, London and Los Angeles.
Audrey Lecorgne in the storerooms of the National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City
FROM RESEARCH TO THE PUBLIC
WHAT WE DO
- 01Lectures10 topicsTen musical lectures, born of field missions and punctuated by reconstructed instruments.
- 02Film & talk1 award-winning filmLe Pacte Gaulois, followed by a talk with Julian Cuvilliez, composer of the original score.
- 03Concerts3 productionsAntika Arkana and The Dragon and the Dove, on instruments brought back by experimental archaeology.
- 04Original scoresFilm and documentaryOriginal music for film and historical documentary, including Le Pacte Gaulois and Odysséa.
- 05ExhibitionsTouringInfinity Project: the story of the Telenn Gentañ, Alan Stivell’s first harp.
- 06ExpertiseCurating & consultingExhibition curating and scientific advice for museums, film and documentary.
LOGBOOK
ON MISSION, ON STAGE
TESTIMONIALS
WHAT THEY SAY
“The Itzamna Mission is a remarkable success and an inspiring example of methodology and international cooperation. Through a cross-disciplinary approach combining new technologies with experimental archaeology, this project has cast new light on a range of pre-Hispanic instrumental artefacts.”
“I would like to acknowledge all the groundwork that was done beforehand, which allowed you to present the range, and above all the method and the means, that archaeology offers to research on ancient musical instruments.”
“Drawing on his expertise, Julian Cuvilliez offered the audience a truly unique sensory experience, carrying listeners into another imaginary world, that of an early Christian Middle Ages still marked by pagan survivals.”
“From the operations led in the storerooms of the National Museum of Anthropology to the field surveys in the jungle of Quintana Roo, I came to appreciate not only their rigour and commitment, but also the human warmth they brought to the work. They led, in exemplary fashion, one of the three bodies behind this mission, representing France brilliantly.”
“A new generation of researchers is taking up this work in the field of experimental archaeology, such as Julian Cuvilliez and Audrey Lecorgne, who have been deeply involved in this work of study, outreach and promotion. Trying to bring these very ancient instruments back to life will help us better understand how they may have been made and what they were used for.”
“I am delighted to hear one of their distant ancestors resound once more. The musical possibilities of the various lyres offered by the Atelier Skald are rich and pleasing: enough for any piper to add new strings to his bow!”
“We can only welcome the ways of sharing and promoting the work and research carried out by Audrey Lecorgne and Julian Cuvilliez: on the one hand publication, intended above all for their peers and for researchers, and on the other the lectures and exhibitions offered to the general public.”
“Julian and Audrey’s approach has all the qualities of exemplary archaeomusicological work. They have carefully reconstructed the lyre in its material, its form and its proportions, to give us a living instrument that sings and brings back to us the seven notes of a lost ancient music.”
“No one can remain unmoved by this daring blend of roots and modernity.”
WHAT AUDIENCES SAY
“Both learned and able to meet his audience where they are, the speaker shared his knowledge, his humour and his virtuosity as a musician. Bravo!”
“A first-rate talk, rich, illustrated and accessible to all thanks to the speaker, who makes archaeology and the world of research fascinating.”
“A fine presentation of the archaeologist’s work, of the discoveries and of the thinking about the artefacts that evoke the music of the Celts. Fascinating. Many thanks.”
“A beautiful and fascinating talk, by a speaker who knew how to adapt to his audience, adults and children aged 6 to 13.”
“Much more than the story of the lyre, it is a journey into the world of the Celts, their view of the world and their relationship with music.”
“You could spend hours and hours listening to him.”
Reviews left by participants on Explore Paris, the outings platform created by the public tourism agencies of Greater Paris.
MUSEUMS, STAGES AND FESTIVALS
WHERE WE HAVE PERFORMED
- MirabelloAgios Nikolaos, Crete
- Elektra HallBaku, Azerbaijan
- Egyptian Museum, CairoCairo, Egypt
- National Museum of ScotlandEdinburgh, Scotland
- AlamannenmuseumEllwangen, Germany
- Fixin museumFixin, Côte-d’Or
- Mamluk PalaceGiza, Egypt
- Festival InterceltiqueLorientwith Carlos Núñez
- Luzech museumLuzech, Lot
- Lugdunum, museum and Roman theatresLyon
- Royal Museum of MariemontMorlanwelz, Belgium
- National Autonomous University of MexicoMexico
- National Museum of AnthropologyMexico
- Motocultor FestivalBrittanywith Alan Stivell
- Museum of Fine ArtsOrléans
- Hôtel Cabu, museum of History and ArchaeologyOrléans
- National Archaeology MuseumSaint-Germain-en-Laye
- Gallo-Roman museumSaint-Romain-en-Gal
- Belvédère museumSully-sur-Loire
- Wacken Open AirWacken, Germanywith Skáld
PRESS AREA
IN THE MEDIA
“The French research couple bringing forgotten Maya instruments back to life”Read the article“Maya musical instruments reconstructed by French researchers”Read the article“La Science, CQFD: musical archaeology”Listen to the programme“The secrets of ancient Maya music”Read the article“Archaeology and instrument making: an unprecedented reconstruction of a seventh-century Merovingian lyre”Listen to the programme“A 14-century-old artefact comes back to life thanks to innovative technologies”Read the article“The Bard with the Lyre, or the secrets of a Gaulish statue”Read the article“At Puivert castle, a musical instrument rediscovered”Read the article“Alan Stivell’s harp digitised in 3D for future generations”Read the article“Alan Stivell’s famous Celtic harp under X-rays”Read the article“Breton bard Julian Cuvilliez awarded in Los Angeles for the music of the film Le Pacte Gaulois”Read the article“Alan Stivell: ‘I’m experimenting with new things’”Read the article
“They succeeded in recreating a sound from Merovingian times”Read the article“The iconic harp of Celtic music reveals its secrets under the scanner”Read the article“The secrets of Alan Stivell’s harp under X-rays”Read the article“Alan Stivell: his first Celtic harp goes through the scanner”Read the article“A harp digitised in 3D for eternity”Read the article“On the trail of Alan Stivell’s first harp”Read the article“A film made in Picardy wins an award in London”Read the article“Le Pacte Gaulois, a film from Picardy, wins an award in London”Read the article“Le Pacte Gaulois receives an American award for its music”Read the article“Portrait: Julian Cuvilliez, the Breton bard with the lyre, awarded in Los Angeles”Read the article“Julian Cuvilliez brings the Celtic lyre back to life”Read the article“Ar Bard’s album gives the Celtic lyre its voice back”Read the article“Alan Stivell. A new album, human and Celtic”Read the article“Ar Bard, Julian Cuvilliez’s whirlwind summer”Read the article“Interceltique: the whole Celtic family gathers around Carlos Núñez”Read the article“The lyre propelled onto the Celtic stage”Read the articleAzerNews“Evening of spiritual music held within Nasimi Festival”Read the article
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