Just two months into the new year, Mindy Meng Wang finds herself on the tail end of two very different collaborations.

In late January,  the Melbourne-based guzheng player and improvisor released UNFOLD 缘启, an album of live recordings from a performance Wang and pianist/composer David Hirschfelder gave in November last year at Darebin Arts Centre.

David Hirschfelder and Mindy Meng Wang performing at Darebin Arts Centre alongside projections by visual artist Benjamin Thompson. Photo supplied

Mindy first met David Hirschfelder in a “very random way” at one of her performances at Tasmania’s MONA, where she met an American artist who took interest in the guzheng and asked her to jam the next time he came to Melbourne. When he next returned on tour, he invited her to his friend’s father’s studio where he was staying.

“I said, ‘Of course!’, and I went there, and it was David’s house. All three of us had a little play and David and I just really loved how our instruments came together, so we kept going.”

Wang felt “honoured” by Hirschfeld suggestion that the two take their improvising to the stage. Once a member...