Wesley Music Centre, Canberra, ACT. September 2, 7.30pm. wesleycanberra.org.au.

When they perform as a duo, husband-and-wife musicians Rupert Boyd and Laura Metcalf bill themselves as Boyd Meets Girl. Boyd, a former Canberra guitarist, and Metcalf, an American cellist, will be playing concerts at Bungendore Woodworks Gallery and Wesley Music Centre while on an 18-city tour of Australia and New Zealand with their debut duo album, also titled Boyd Meets Girl.

Boyd says they will be performing some selections from the album. They hadn't finalised which ones at the time of speaking but among the CD tracks are arrangements of pieces by Manuel de Falla, Arvo Part and Astor Piazzolla.

Boyd Meets Girl also includes the premiere recording of Arafura Arioso by Australian composer Ross Edwards, arranged especially for duo by the composer at Boyd Meets Girl's request.

"The Arafura Sea is located to the north of Australia, and the work captures the beauty and expanse of the vast Australian outback," Boyd says. "In Edwards' words, the piece portrays the 'calm and reflective' nature of the Northern Territory, and the music 'floats mysteriously on the balmy tropical air'.

"It's a really beautiful piece and we've enjoyed playing it in the US, where people don't know Ross Edwards."

There are arrangements of some of Johann Sebastian Bach's keyboard Two Part Inventions with each of the stringed instruments taking one of the parts, each with its own timbre.

"It's a new presentation of the works," Boyd says.

Gabriel Faure's Pavane is presented in a reduction from the orchestral score. Metcalf says arranging the work "was not without its challenges" but the result captures "the nostalgic melancholy of the piece".

The album also includes the couple's own arrangement of Steve Porcaro's and John Bettis' song, Human Nature from Michael Jackson's bestselling 1982 album, Thriller.

In addition to the arrangements, there are some works written specifically for cello and guitar by Brazilian composers Radames Gnattali and Jaime Zenamon.

Boyd says for the concert: "We'll also add some new pieces including a piece from Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time that was originally for cello and piano; the piano part works really well for guitar."

Metcalf says among the other pieces they will perform is an arrangement of "a beautiful Schubert song", Gretchen am Spinnrade. The cello, she says, is "very vocal" in its sound, making it easy for her to play clear vocal lines and give them a lot a lot of emotion.

"It's quite touching."

She says the unusual combination of cello and guitar "work really well together" with their complementary sounds.

Boyd and Metcalf live in Manhattan, New York City, and will be releasing their CD there in October. They perform together a few times a year but otherwise maintain a busy separate performing schedule.

"I'm in a number of chamber groups that tour extensively ... I'm touring 30 or 40 per cent of the year," Metcalf says.

The Canberra-born Boyd, who graduated from the ANU School of Music in 2004, is on the road for "three or four months of the year".

They met in 2009 at a concert where they were performing different pieces. Although the first encounter wasn't promising (Boyd: "She wouldn't really speak to me"; Metcalf: "I was about to go on stage!") things improved from there and they were married in 2015.