STANDING at the tomb of Meher Baba in Ahmednagar, India, a 12-year-old Kokila Gillett picked up her violin and joined the other musicians offering their talents to the spiritual leader.

“I loved joining in with whoever was playing, be it Indian music, classical, country, jazz, or Latino music,” says the accomplished Muswell Hill musician, who has made the yearly journey to Meher Baba's tomb since the age of seven. “I had to use my ear, which is how I learnt to improvise.”

It’s a skill Kokila, now 26, has honed since the age of six, with a dedication that saw her getting up a 4.30am before school to practise before enrolling at The Purcell School, and it’s a talent she will demonstrate with her musical partner, pianist and composer Pavel Timofejevsky at the Camden music venue The Forge on Sunday. Performing under the name Philomel Duo, the pair will improvise to the words of Oscar Wilde’s short story Nightingale and The Rose, as spoken by the actor Christian Emmerson.

And for the duo, who also work with the charity Live Music Now, bringing “good music to those who can’t access it” in hospitals, residential homes and prisons, this particular prose has special resonance.

“You can feel the music, with the bird,” the Royal College of Music graduate tells me,“and for both of us it was particularly special because philomel means nightingale in Greek. Kokila also means nightingale in Sanskrit, and for Pavel the first time he got into composition was on a philomel (a musical instrument similar to the violin with four steel wire strings).”

Heavy with cold but ever the professional, Kokila sniffles on: “From the very beginning, improvisation was at the core of classical music. Often you would just have a simple melody and the musician was expected to embellish. Nowadays we tend to keep to what is written, but Pavel and I both love adding things.”

Sunday’s concert will also feature written pieces, such as five pre-composed Prokofiev melodies interspersed with translated Russian poetry, as well as further music-embued short stories and poems such as Shakespeare sonnets and Keats’ Ode to a Nightingale.

Herself a poet, Kokila, who also sings, concludes: “I love English literature and for me it’s fantastic to be able to bring in words to a performance, it’s a love affair of words and music together.”

Philomel Duo perform at The Forge, Delancey Street, Camden Town on Sunday, November 29, 11am. Tickets: www.forgevenue.org (£4-£10)