Just call it luck when the best performers come from one’s own backyard.

Three exceptional local musicians come together for the first concert of this season’s Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Whidbey Island’s Chamber Music Recital series.

Harpsichordist and pianist Eileen Soskin, violinist Gloria Ferry-Brennan and cellist James Hinkley will perform the music of J.S. Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, Anton Arensky and Johan Halvorsen at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 28 and Saturday, Oct. 29 at the church in Freeland.

Soskin, who’s had an accomplished career as a pianist, musical scholar, administrator, professor and published writer, will comment on the music briefly between each piece.

“I will give listeners tips on what to listen for,” Soskin said. “People say that these mini-guides really enhance their enjoyment of the performance.”

Her guidance will start with Bach’s “Sonate für Violine und Klavier, BWV 1015,” which was written for violin and harpsichord with the bass line of the harpsichord part doubled on cello.

“The music is like a red carpet that unrolls before you and perfectly represents the principle of economy; very little material is spun into a beautiful cloth which is coherent and tightly woven,” she said.

Also on the program is Beethoven’s “Sonate für Klavier und Violine, Op. 30 No. 2.”  The piece, Soskin said, is a transitional work between the Classical and Romantic periods.

“It is formally old-fashioned, with clearly delineated sections and easily discernible forms,” Soskin said.

“It has sonata allegro, song form, scherzo, rondo — yet it also has the expressive fingerprints that herald a new era: sudden dynamic shifts from loud to soft and visa versa; a much wider range in the piano that allows very high and very low passages to grab the listener’s attention; interesting uses of silence and tempo changes that keep the listener on his or her aural toes,” she added.

“If the Bach is like a beautiful red carpet being unrolled, the Beethoven is like a walk on the rocky beach of Whidbey Island where fabulous and unexpected things can be seen and heard.”

The program also wanders into the territory of the unexpected.

Arensky’s “Trio for Piano, Violin and Cello, Op. 32” and Halvorsen’s “Passacaglia on a Theme by Handel,” Soskin said, are late Romantic pieces which emphasize both the virtuosity of the players and a wildly passionate approach to music.

“To continue my earlier analogy, they are like a walk on the beach at Whidbey during a fierce storm when the water is roiled up and the sky is dark and visibility is impaired,” she said.

“You never know what is about to happen and, if you think you do, it is guaranteed that you will be surprised.”

She called all four pieces jewels of music, and was confident that she had found the perfect musicians to accompany on each. Given the amount of musical talent that is no further than a stone’s throw away from anyone at any given time on Whidbey Island, why then, Soskin was asked, these musicians in particular?

Don’t be fooled by Ferry-Brennan’s youth, Soskin noted. This 14-year-old artist is a powerhouse on the violin and can hold her own.

“Gloria is one of the finest musicians I have had the pleasure of working with,” Soskin said.

“She is a mature artist despite her age and, ever since we first played together, we have been delighting in making music together. Together we have uncovered wonderful musical ideas in all of these pieces,” she added.

Ferry-Brennan has been a local musician of some note since age 9 when she first played with the Saratoga Chamber Orchestra. She has played with the Seattle Symphony, and the Ottawa Chamber Orchestra; she has won a national title and performed with world-class musician Elizabeth Pitcairn of the Red Violin fame. Inevitably, Soskin knows, Ferry-Brennan will leave this “backyard” and will move on to the wider world of a musical career.

“But as long as she is here, I will jump at any opportunity to play with her,” Soskin said.

Both artists were keen to play with Hinkley, who is also very much admired for his various forms of magic with the cello, playing classical, jazz and modern music on his instrument with equal aplomb. Soskin has been taking cello lessons with Hinkley, and was happy to grant his request to add the Arensky to the program in order to have him join the trio.

“Once we had roped him into that, it was a joy to be able to have him playing the continuo line in the Bach,” Soskin said.

Soskin pointed out that the concert is a benefit performance for which the musicians will donate their services. This opening concert of the Chamber Music Recital series will raise funds for the UUCWI Piano Fund.

“It is my dream to have a really fine instrument in our sanctuary at some point in the future,” Soskin said.

“Our goal is to have a piano that will invite others to use our beautiful sanctuary as a center of chamber music on the island,” she added.

The rented Steinway grand piano on which she will play this upcoming concert, Soskin said, has a a beautiful sound, which she is sure audience members will find enjoyable.

Tickets will be available after congregation services until the concert dates and at the door. Tickets are $15 for adults, and $10 for seniors and youths.

Future recitals will include classical and jazz string quartets, including Stop, Thief with Whidbey native Teo Benson and friends on Feb. 4 and “Mozart: The Impresario,” a one-act comic opera March 25.