Australian percussionist Claire Edwardes will be making her Canberra Symphony Orchestra debut as a guest soloist in the CSO's final concert for 2015 in a concerto that calls for more than the usual orchestral palette.

Among the atypical instruments she and others will be playing are kazoos, tuned cowbells and brake drums (from tyres).

Edwardes has performed in Canberra before – she has been a guest at the Canberra International Music Festival – but she is looking forward to playing with the orchestra under its chief conductor and artistic director, Nicholas Milton.

"I've never played with them, but I have heard them, of course – they're great," she says.

The percussionist will be highlighted in Australian composer Elena Kats-Chernin's concerto Golden Kitsch, which she worked alongside the composer to develop.

"Elena and I workshopped the piece at great length. She made many visits to my studio as she was writing it and it was probably the truest collaboration I've ever had with a composer."

"I love the piece, because it is thoroughly engaging and entertaining," Edwardes says. "The percussion solo part is ever-changing and offset with a really fun orchestral part. There are loads of toy pianos featured in the work – I play one up the front and the percussion section have several – and there is even a bit where the wind section plays ratchets and other fun hand-held percussion.

"There's something almost childlike about the piece and I think the audience experience a youthful fascination as they watch and listen. All the while, they are being taken on a magic carpet ride that they don't even know they have taken until they hit the ground at the end."

Edwardes won the ABC young performer competition in 1999 and says that while percussion is not as familiar to audiences as some other instruments, "it's exciting trying to sell it and getting people surprised when they like new music ... percussion goes down extremely well".

She has had a busy year, having performed five concertos with various orchestras around Australia, including a new concerto written for her by Iain Grandage and performances with new music group Ensemble Offspring, of which she is co-artistic director.

Wyana O'Keeffe, who has been principal percussionist with the CSO since 2005, is also excited about the featured role for the unusual instruments she, Edwardes, associate percussionist Veronica Bailey and other CSO members will be playing – especially the toy pianos.

"They're not much more than octave and a little bit out of tune, a little bit clunky – very reminiscent of childhood."

Another unusual featured instrument is a sheet of corrugated iron, which is beaten to produce a distinctive sound.

In addition to Golden Kitsch, the concert will feature Arturo Marquez's Mexican dance band-style Danzon No. 2, and Rachmaninov's orchestral showpiece Symphonic Dances, both of which also feature a heavy percussion component.

"We're going to be 'pimping' the percussion section," O'Keeffe says.

The usual percussion section in a performance is two or three players and a timpanist; for this concert, it will be five percussionists plus timpanist.

This is being billed as the biggest ensemble the Canberra Symphony Orchestra has had for a concert.

"This is really, really exciting," O'Keeffe says. "People are going to want more of it. And it's just as exciting to play."

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