By Coral Gables Gazette staff

A cello, a piano, and five centuries of music will collapse into a single evening this Saturday in Coral Gables, where two acclaimed performers—cellist Gabriel Martins and pianist Marina Radiushina—trace a line from Bach’s sacred elegance to Ginastera’s folkloric fire.

The recital, From Baroque to Pampas, is presented by the Miami Chamber Music Society at the University of Miami’s Newman Recital Hall, and offers a rare chance to hear global-caliber chamber music in an intimate, local setting. The program begins at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, October 11, and unfolds inside the Knight Center for Music Innovation at the Frost School of Music.

An arc that crosses time, form, and continent

More than a traditional recital, From Baroque to Pampas functions as a musical migration: five works, five composers, and a carefully plotted journey across eras and borders. It opens with Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1, arguably the most iconic solo work ever written for the instrument—its flowing prelude and stylized dances now inseparable from the sound of the cello itself.

Next comes Mozart’s Sonata in E Minor, K.304, arranged here for cello and piano. Composed during a period of personal grief following his mother’s death in Paris, the sonata’s minor key and stark lyricism make it one of Mozart’s most introspective works.

The geographic shift begins with Ginastera’s Pampeana No. 2, a rhapsody for cello and piano that evokes the wide skies, folk dances, and gaucho rhythms of Argentina’s pampas. Composed in 1950, it marries folkloric fire with classical architecture—equal parts landscape and lament.

French lyricism follows with Gabriel Fauré’s Papillon, Op. 77, a brief but technically dazzling miniature whose title (French for “butterfly”) gives way to fluttering piano runs and airborne cello lines.

The program closes with Brahms’s Cello Sonata No. 1 in E Minor, a cornerstone of the Romantic chamber canon. Grounded in counterpoint and stormy lyricism, it draws a final arc between Baroque formality and Romantic intensity—crowning the evening with structure, drama, and grace.

Two artists, one musical vision

Martins, the Brazilian-American cellist at the center of this recital, has emerged as one of the most celebrated young voices in the classical world. A laureate of the Sphinx Competition, the Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians, and the Concert Artists Guild Grand Prize, he’s already appeared at Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, and the Ravinia Festival.

His interpretation of Bach has drawn particular praise. The Strad called it “flawlessly played… deeply moving,” signaling a tone both precise and emotionally magnetic.

He is joined by Radiushina, a Ukrainian-American pianist whose dual identity as performer and presenter has shaped the classical music scene in South Florida. As Artistic Director of the Miami Chamber Music Society and founder of the Mainly Mozart Festival, Radiushina has introduced countless residents to chamber music through curatorial projects that blur the lines between stage and story.

Together, Martins and Radiushina bring more than virtuosity. They bring vision. This recital—both in programming and in performance—is built to move, not merely impress.

A chamber music moment for Coral Gables

Though Coral Gables hosts a wide array of concerts each season, this event stands out for its artistic focus, thematic integrity, and international pedigree. From Baroque to Pampas is not a gala, not a gala-adjacent showcase, but a chamber recital in the purest sense: two musicians, one stage, and an arc of repertoire designed to unfold like a novel.

At a time when global attention drifts easily toward spectacle, this program returns listeners to something quieter and more powerful—the direct transmission of feeling across time through sound. Each piece, each phrase, is an invitation: to contemplate grief, joy, nostalgia, and place—not as abstraction, but as lived resonance.

For music lovers, artists, students, and residents looking to sink into a Saturday night of layered listening, the Newman Recital Hall will offer a rare kind of intimacy. The kind where you don’t just hear the music—you feel its lineage.

If you go…

• What: From Baroque to Pampas – A recital with Gabriel Martins (cello) and Marina Radiushina (piano)
• When: Saturday, October 11 • 7:30–9:30 p.m.
• Where: Newman Recital Hall, Knight Center for Music Innovation, Frost School of Music, University of Miami
• Address: 5513 San Amaro Drive, Coral Gables, FL 33146
• Presented by: Miami Chamber Music Society
• Admission: Ticketed via Eventbrite
• Program Includes:
  • J.S. Bach – Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major
  • W.A. Mozart – Violin Sonata in E Minor, K.304 (transcribed for cello)
  • A. Ginastera – Pampeana No. 2
  • G. Fauré – Papillon
  • J. Brahms – Cello Sonata No. 1 in E Minor