The Horniman Museum and Gardens in Forest Hill is to open a new permanent display in its acclaimed Music Gallery, exploring domestic keyboard instruments and showcasing some which have never been on public display.

Opening in January 2014, At Home With Music will focus on keyboards from the past five centuries that were brought into homes – from parlours to palaces – and bring together highlights of the keyboard instrument collections from the Horniman and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

The exhibition includes organs, harpsichords, pianos and clavichords and features rare and beautiful instruments including a virginals built in 1555 by Annibale de Rossi – the oldest instrument in this display; a uniquely decorated Flemish virginals; an 18th-century bureau organ by the renowned builder John Snetzler; and a portable piano of the type that Captain Scott took with him on his first expedition to the Antarctic in 1901.

The launch of At Home with Music will also see the introduction of live musical performances as a regular feature in the Horniman’s Music Gallery through the restoration to playing condition of its 1772 Jacob Kirckman harpsichord.

The first performance on the newly restored Kirckman will include the winning piece from the Horniman’s Musical Composition Competition. Open for entries until 1 October 2013, the Competition invites musicians under the age of 35 to compose a solo harpsichord piece for the launch of At Home With Music. The performance will mark not only the opening of the exhibit, but also this new chapter in the life of the Music Gallery which will see the Kirckman harpsichord used for future lecture demonstrations, master-classes and concert performances.

Janet Vitmayer, Chief Executive of the Horniman says: ‘We are delighted that we are able to create a new permanent home for keyboards in our Music Gallery and enhance our visitors’ musical experience through this new exhibition. At Home With Music will give visitors the opportunity to discover more about these remarkable instruments and look at how musical performances have been enjoyed within the home over the centuries’.

Mimi Waitzman, lead curator for the exhibition, says: ‘This new display speaks to us on many levels. It makes us realise how intimately music figures in our everyday lives and that our music actually helps us define our idea of home. A remarkable variety of keyboard instruments have kept us company throughout history. They came in and out of fashion, entertaining us, expressing feelings and even consoling us. This exhibit shows not only what they were and how they work, but who used them and what they thought of them.’

At Home With Music opens to the public at the end of January 2014 and will be free to enter as part of the Music Gallery.

In preparation for the exhibition there will be restricted access to the Horniman’s Music Gallery between September 2013 and January 2014.

The arrival of this new display will also be marked by a research conference at the Horniman in 2014 called Roots of Revival, which will look at keyboards and other instruments that inspired, or were products of, the modern renaissance of interest in early music.

At Home with Music was made possible through funding from the Arts Council England’s Designation development fund and the generous support of individual donors and the Friends of the Horniman.