The multi-award winning composer and musician, Dame Evelyn Glennie, will take part in a Q&A following a screening of the internationally acclaimed film Touch the Sound by Thomas Riedelsheimer in the intimate setting of the Usurp Art Gallery & Studios in Harrow.

Born and raised in rural Aberdeenshire, Dame Evelyn went on to study at the Royal Academy of Music and has become the first person in music history to successfully create a full-time career as a solo percussionist. Although she has been profoundly deaf since the age of eight, this hasn’t been a barrier to pursuing a life in music.

Dame Evelyn says the emotions percussion creates are what attract her to the form. "The thing about playing percussion is that you can create all these emotions that can be sometimes beautiful, sometimes really ugly, or sometimes sweet, sometimes as big as King Kong and so on. There can be a real riot out there, or it can be so refined."

Her career has taken her all over the world where she has performed as part of large orchestral ensembles as well as in her unique position as a solo percussionist.

The film Touch theSound immerses the audience in a sensual experience. Through the rhythms Dame Evelyn creates, the audience are able to ‘touch’ the sounds, with added poignancy as she uses the vibrations produced by percussion to ‘touch’, and be able to hear, the notes she strikes.

The audience will be able to experience the film in all its glory in stunning surround sound and Dame Evelyn will be on hand afterwards to answer any questions the audience may have.

The film has received criticism from some with hearing impairments, as it has never been screened with subtitles, despite attracting a large audience of deaf people because of the central role of Dame Evelyn.

Despite criticism, the film is still an audio and visual masterpiece which takes listeners and viewers on a journey across the world, following Glennie through the different cities and people she encounters on her voyage.

Recently Glennie performed in the Olympics opening ceremony performing the song Caliban's Dream with electronic group Underworld which accompanied the lighting of the Olympic flame.

The Q&A with Dame Evelyn Glennie and screening of film Touch the Sound is at Usurp Art Gallery & Studios, Vaughan Road, Harrow on Saturday, July 13 at 7pm. Before the screening, there will also be a free workshop Extraordinary Sounds from Ordinary Things taking place at the gallery on Saturday, July 13 where audiences can be part of a specially devised workshop to make a collective, playful, soundscape for recording and performance using everyday objects and toys. No previous experience is required. The workshop takes place from 11.30am with a public performance at 3pm.