I am very pleased to announce that Cambiata Cello Duo - my partnership with Paul Finkelstein - will be performing for the first time on the Islip Arts Council's Winter Concert Series. The concert is taking place Sunday, March 16 at 1:00 pm, at the Bayard Cutting Arboretum in Great River, NY, which is where we first met and decided to collaborate.

The program is eclectic and includes solos by women composers in honor of Women's History Month, and works by composers of Catalonia (including beloved cello icon Pablo Casals). All duets represent a dialogue of equal parts:

Friedrich August Kummer's Duet, Op. 22; Nr. 1 gets the afternoon off to a festive start.

We then present a more familiar work - a beautiful arrangement of Enrique Granados's Orientale  - his Spanish Dance No. 2. Granados is the first of the afternoon's Catalan composers.

Next, we turn to Brazil, with a performance of an arrangement of Antonio Carlos Jobim's Ela É Carioca created by Mark McCarron for our duo.

We then remain in Latin America for the next two works - a pair of tangos: Esperame en el Cielo, by Paquito Lopez Vidal and arranged by David Johnstone; and Tiempos Viejos, by Francisco Canaro, arranged by Werner Thomas-Mifune.

A pair of Catalan solos follows - Paul performs Pablo Casal's Song of the Birds and Suzanne shares Ball d'entrada, the first of Elisenda Fabregas's Danses de la terra (Catalan Dances).

Next are three short duets by American composer Halsey Stevens, which are clearly influenced by Igor Stravinsky, Aaron Copland, and Béla Bartók. And we follow them up with two brief duets by Bartok: Wedding Song and Ruthenian Kolowejka.

Before intermission, we leave the audience with Jacques Offenbach's Duet Op. 51; Nr. 2.

We return after intermission with Ludwig on Beethoven's Duet, WOO 27; nr. 2 in F Major, originally composed for clarinet and bassoon.

Next, we share What Remains, a work composed for this duo by David Wolfson.

Then, you can't have a concert with 2 cellos and no Bach, and we gladly fulfill our responsibility with a suite, BWV 820 adapted for cello duo by cellist Laszlo Varga from a keyboard suite.

Two solos are next -The Land, movement 1 of Vermont composer Gwyneth Walker's The Green Mountains, performed by Suzanne, and a delightful, quirky March from Sergei Prokofiev's Children's Music.

The duo then reconvenes for a rousing finish: American composer Aaron Minsky's Way Out West.

Sign-in begins at 12:15. All attendees must be signed in prior to seating. Parking and seating are limited and first-come, first-served; it is recommended that you arrive early - weather permitting, you can walk around the arboretum and enjoy its beauty. Doors open for full seating at 12:45 PM.

We hope that you'll join us for an afternoon of music we love at Long Island's most beautiful State Park!