Harmony Ensemble play music from the rich traditions of China - and go further, drawing on Chinese, Western Classical and Scottish folk elements to create improvisations, new songs and compositions. For concerts and workshops we draw from a pool of musicians from East and West: Fong Liu presents a wide range of singing styles (‘mountain’ voice, folk, opera, even jazz style) and collaborates with Scottish composer Eddie McGuire (he plays bamboo flute) to compose new songs. Zheng and a fascinating array of Chinese percussion are played by Hooi Ling Eng (who is also a member of Gamelan Naga Mas). Other musicians often include Willem Mathlener (violin), Kimho Ip (yang qin), Cheng-Ying Chuang (liuqin, ruan and counter-tenor voice) and Xuan Shan (accordion).

The name was first used in 2004 for a collaboration with Scottish traditional group “Whistlebinkies” to create a new ballet based on the legend ‘The Ox Boy and the Weaver Girl’ for Celtic Connections festival with music by Eddie and choreography by co-founder Yanmei Wu. This ballet resulted from a Creative Scotland Award and was short-listed for a Pearl Award. Since then Harmony Ensemble has been chosen for major festivals and events like Children’s Classic Concerts, BBCTV Silk Screens, Beijing Olympics ‘handover’ in Glasgow, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the Sound festival in Aberdeen and improvising music for the film “Cleansing the House with Ink” by Thomas Jacobi at Ricefield Arts and Cultural Centre.

Harmony gets involved in unusual events, too: playing in Manchester Piccadilly railway station for a Festival Fringe sponsor; in underground stations celebrating ‘Glasgow UNESCO City of Music’; in the streets for Edinburgh Festival Fringe and becoming the first Chinese music group to perform in a Scottish folk music club (Monkton in Ayrshire).

A special activity has been performing with classical orchestras: in 2009 we arranged a whole programme of traditional Chinese songs, new compositions and dances for concerts with the Scottish Philharmonic Orchestra and Elphinstone String Orchestra and received critical acclaim in the press. Workshops have been developed with choirs in Inverness and Perth. An important part of future plans is to accompany storytelling - we have been invited to perform at the International Storytelling Festival on October 23 in the Netherbow Theatre in Edinburgh - with Fong telling stories she has adapted from ancient Chinese legends.