Orchid Ensemble plays a sort of “world music” that’s harder to pin down than that of most groups tossed into that catchall category. The 15-year-old Vancouver-based trio blends traditional Chinese sounds with an array of other musical and cultural influences. Erhu (Chinese violin) player/composer Lan Tung, Yu-Chen Wang on Chinese zither or zheng, and marimba player Jonathan Bernard have continually stretched their musical boundaries through collaborations with other musicians, composers, and artists in other media, including dance and visual media.

The pieces on their latest album Life Death Tears Dream were inspired by poetry from in Chinese, Spanish, English, and Hebrew. When they come to Northeast Ohio, they’ll be forging still more collaborations with choirs from Kent State University and KSU’s Stark County branch.

The group’s press release says, “Tung has also composed pieces that push choral singers in other ways — besides urging them to sing in a possibly novel language: She plans to share with the Ohio choirs a work for erhu and choir, where singers replace the classical instrumental parts and have to use their voices like accompanying instruments.”

They’re at Kent State’s Stark Campus Fine Arts Theatre Friday and at Kent State University’s Cartwright Hall Saturday.