By Mark Coddington
mark.coddington@theindependent.com

They've played classical and inspirational music throughout most of their 20 years together, but this weekend, they'll be playing a show of hits from the 1950s through the 1980s.

Many of the songs in that style aren't written for piano and flute, so Saunders and Forbes usually have to create their own compositions.

"We've taken some of the old songs and kind of decided to do our own things with them," said Saunders, the piano half of the duet. "This is new for us."

Saturday's show is also the pair's first in a coffee shop environment. After meeting while playing in various Palmer churches, Saunders and Forbes often played for weddings, funerals and church events.

But in the past few years, they've branched out in into wine tastings, benefits and country music festivals. They were even asked to play for a dance at Grand Island's Saddle Club last summer.

Along with that shift, they've begun to try playing pop, country, oldies and jazz music in addition to their traditional fare of chamber pieces and praise choruses.

"We just wanted to try something different and show we had some versatility," said Forbes, who plays the flute.

The pair isn't sure what kind of audience they'll get at Blue Moon, but they figure that with four decades from which to draw, they'll have something for just about everybody.

Forbes, who still lives in Palmer, and Saunders, who's moved to Central City, also plan to record their third CD next weekend. Their first, recorded a few years ago, was made up of classical and inspirational music, and their second was a Christmas album.

Their new CD will consist of romantic classics.

Ultimately, the pair hope to write some of their own music and use their music to create more of their income.

But what they love most is performing with each other and, hopefully, affecting others as well.

"If it's meaningful to someone in some way, that really makes it worthwhile, worth all that hard work," Forbes said.