With their programme “Between Friends and Family,” Cheng² Duo explores the relationships between generations of composers across cultures and centuries, celebrating the friendships and admiration they inspired. The first half juxtaposes two revolutionaries of their time: Dinuk Wijeratne and Ludwig van Beethoven. Wijeratne, who fuses elements of Indian and Middle Eastern music in his compositions, was inspired by Beethoven’s 3rd cello sonata to write his JUNO-nominated work, Portrait of an Imaginary Sibling; meanwhile, Beethoven blazed the trail for future composers, being the first to write sonatas for cello and piano that treated both instruments as equals. The brother-and-sister duo then takes us to Paris in the 1910s – the ultimate melting pot of culture in the world – where musicians, painters, poets, writers, and choreographers gathered regularly to exchange ideas. Claude Debussy was a central figure in that musical scene, which included his close friends Manuel de Falla and Igor Stravinsky. Revel in the unique musical soundworlds each composer has to offer with their distinct and powerful voices and witness the influence that endearment and adoration create in these classical masterworks!