If you walk into Camden People’s Theatre this weekend, you will hear two completely different musical worlds speaking to each other. One belongs to Wan Xing, a Hong Kong composer who plucks the 21 strings of the traditional Chinese guzheng. The other belongs to Eleanor Dunsdon and Gregor Black, a Glasgow duo armed with a Scottish lever harp and an Irish bodhrán.
Together, they turn the physical brushwork of ink and paper into sound. Their production, titled Sound Strokes, arrives in London on 5th and 6th September for an exclusive two-night run after gathering critical acclaim across Scotland.
The language of ink and wood
The project started with a simple question. What happens when the sweeping motions of Chinese calligraphy dictate the tempo of folk instruments?
To answer that, the musicians built an entire set around the four classical elements of earth, water, fire, and wind. The strings mimic the tension of an ink brush touching paper. Fast, sharp strikes evoke a sudden flick of the wrist. Long, low notes linger like drying pigment.
Wan Xing explained the leap in ambition between this performance and their earlier work. “If Waves of Tradition proved that our cultures could speak the same language, Sound Strokes – A harmonious blend of Chinese and Scottish Music uses that shared language to paint a massive, multi-sensory portrait of nature and human spirit,” she said. “It is bolder, more abstract, and deeply conceptual.”
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Behind the musicians, visual artist Qiu Yangzi provides the physical scenery with her work Soil Remembers. She built the piece using chromatography, an old camera-less photographic method. The resulting image stretches across a handmade paper scroll set inside two gilded Art Nouveau frames. As the trio plays, the artwork mirrors the acoustic landscape, turning visual lines into a backdrop for live improvisation.
From Edinburgh Fringe to Camden
Londoners get only two chances to see the forty-five-minute production in person. Both performances take place at 7pm at Camden People’s Theatre on 5th and 6th September 2026.
The production gained widespread recognition at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe earlier this summer. Reviewers praised its balance and focus. Fringe Review called it “a lively, healing balm of a performance.” Scottish Field gave it five stars, describing it as “a beautiful collaboration of tradition and music from musicians who know their instruments well enough to push its boundaries.” The Wee Review wrote that the show “immerses you in a borderline spiritual state of mind,” while The Scotsman noted that the group “packs quite a musical punch.”
The artists behind the sound
The three performers met through a shared interest in crossing musical boundaries.
Wan Xing trained extensively in classical Chinese music, earning top prizes at the Chinese Folk Instruments Competition and the International Guzheng Competition. In 2023, she travelled to Boston for Yo-Yo Ma’s Silkroad Global Musician Workshop. That experience connected her with musicians from around the globe and led directly to her collaborative work with British folk artists. She has created pieces for the Hong Kong Museum of Art, the Hong Kong Dance Company, and government cultural bodies.
Dunsdon and Black crossed paths in 2022 while pursuing postgraduate music degrees at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Since then, the pair have made a name for themselves on the UK folk circuit. They won the Danny Kyle Open Stage award at Celtic Connections, earned the Purbeck Rising prize, and received the UK Harp Association’s Emerging Artists title in 2024. Their 2024 debut release, Let No Man, earned airplay across BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio Scotland, and RTÉ Radio 1.
Funding for the current tour comes from the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government and the China National Arts Fund, which chose the original project Traces of Qi for development.
How to get tickets
Tickets are on sale now for both evening dates at Camden People’s Theatre. You can secure your seat and find full venue details directly on the Camden People’s Theatre website.
