Amid the seething cultural mêlée that is festival Edinburgh, a concert at the Queen’s Hall later this month showcases an extraordinary multi-cultural union of disabled Scottish musicians and a group from Kazakhstan, blending specifically developed digital technology with western classical and ethnic Kazakh instruments.

This unlikely sounding collaboration sees Drake Music Scotland, innovators of digital solutions to enable disabled musicians to fulfil their potential, collaborate with the Eegeru ensemble who play contemporary music from Kazakhstan and central Asia, using both western classical instrumentation and ethnic instruments such as the distinctively haunting strains of the kylkobuz, an ancient bowed instrument with shamanic associations.

The Kazakhs and members of Drake’s iPad Lab will rehearse and perform together, with a Queen’s Hall concert, Path to Scotland, on 27 August, including the premiere of Call of the Mountains, a piece composed for this unique collaboration by Drake Music Scotland’s associate musician Clare Johnston. Drake’s acclaimed Digital Orchestra will also feature as part of the evening’s wider programme.

And as Drake Music Scotland’s artistic director, Peter Sparkes, explains, they hope to capitalise on the collaboration by supporting the Eegeru players in developing their own work with disabled musicians in Kazakhstan.

A degenerative condition prevented Clare Johnston from pursuing a career as a viola and recorder player, so she embraced the power of digital technology and has revolutionised the use of the iPad as a musical instrument and composing tool. Her compositions exploit the potential of such digital technology as well as exploring the potential of the differences and similarities between acoustic and digital instruments.

Sparkes likens Eegeru to the likes of Scottish contemporary music groups such as the Hebrides Ensemble or Red Note, and says the collaboration came about through a neurodivergent composer with Drake, Ben Lunn, who has amassed a wide knowledge of contemporary composers around the world. “Ben studied in Lithuania and in Wales and has this international collection of interesting contemporary composers. He knew of Eegeru, possibly through their support for composers from that area.”

The initial collaboration was carried out via Zoom – “which means that Kazakhstan was no harder to reach, in a way, than Glasgow. But what we really wanted to do was to explore creative ideas then be able to bring Eegeru to Scotland during the Edinburgh Festival.

“For them it’s a fantastic opportunity to explore a new cultural phenomenon, as well as to work together, because although the online stuff allowed us to make the connections, it’s always that live interaction that’s important.”

Following a week’s rehearsals, the first part of the Queen’s Hall concert will be more like a contemporary classical recital, with Eegeru highlighting some of the composers they work with, before performing a new piece by Ben Lunn. Then the iPad Lab will join the ensemble for the premiere of Johnston’s composition.

Sparkes sees Johnston’s work with the iPad quartet as pushing the boundaries of composition for digital instruments, while Johnston is enthusiastic about her engagement with the Kazakhs: “Their willingness to get on board with a totally different musical style and bring their own creativity to it was exciting for me as a composer.

“It was also exciting to connect with musical traditions that date back hundreds of years. People have been playing traditional instruments in their own spaces for centuries and Eegeru have been integrating the music of these previously isolated musicians into their repertoire and now, through this collaboration, they can be connected internationally.”

Eegeru don’t work with disabled musicians at the moment, but, says Sparkes, “What’s quite exciting is that there is a funding organisation in Almaty [the Kazakh capital] which has just bought a load of iPads on the back of this project because they realise they are such an inclusive tool for children to use. So we’re hoping to move forward in the future with that – maybe send Clare to Kazakhstan with a small team to set up creative workshops.”

See www.drakemusicscotland.org

Call of the Mountains: Scots iPad musicians to team up with Kazakhstan's Eegeru ensemble