Patrick Rafferty, classical guitar adjunct faculty member at Southeast Missouri State University, and Laura Guyer Ross, adjunct professor of double reeds at Southeast, of the music department call their duet performances "Double Fret." This is because Ross plays the oboe, a double reed instrument, and Rafferty plays guitar, which has frets.

Rafferty said they have been performing together at various concerts since about the spring of 2011. The duo has performed at venues in Chicago, St. Louis and Cape Girardeau. They have played at an international oboe convention as guest performers a few summers ago and at various venues, taverns and recital halls. According to Ross, their duet performances have even been on the radio.

"Working with Patrick is great," Ross said. "He can be serious but has a sense of humor too. I think his best quality is his willingness to be creative and think outside the box. It makes writing music as a duo much more interesting and rewarding."

Rafferty also said that often times during his solo concerts, like his Chamber Music concert on Dec. 11 for example, he will include a few of their own arrangements. Rafferty will play guitar, and Ross will join him on oboe. While the concert as a whole is not entirely a holiday show, the section of the performance that includes Ross will be primarily holiday pieces. The set is approximately 20 minutes long and consists of Rafferty and Ross's own "rearrangements."

"Instead of 'arrangements' we are kind of calling them 'rearrangements' because they are being presented in a way that is not what most people would expect," Rafferty said. "We are bringing a lot of other influences to them rather than just the standard recitation of these holiday songs. In other words, some of them have jazz influences, and there is some influenced by reggae.

"We've been working on them for a while now, probably since last October. We had this idea to do a holiday set, and it kind of got out of hand. We went a little overboard and made a bunch of arrangements. These are kind of a small portion of what we did. They are the more complete ones. We're really excited, though, because we haven't really had a chance to put them on before in a concert."

The duo set will feature arrangements of "Greensleeves," "What Child is this," "Ave Maria" and "The First Noel" in addition to other classics with modern twists. There will be eight arrangements in all and also some classical influences during the length of the program. Rafferty said that one special quality in the program is that the duo has created what is called a "mash-up," meaning they have interposed one song onto another. An example of one of their mash-ups is "The First Noel" they have combined with "Canon" and have also added a somewhat reggae rhythmic pattern.

"We have taken traditional, recognizable holiday favorites and arranged them in a variety of ways to suit our instruments and our signature style," Ross said.

The piece Rafferty believes will go over best with the audience is their own arrangement of "Arabian Dances" mashed with "We Three Kings." Rafftery said it's a piece that best stands on its own and best represents what they are doing.

"It is a combination of familiar melodies, and it has a lot of sections to it," Rafferty said. "From start to finish it's probably the most enjoyable piece to listen to just because there's a lot of different ideas being thrown around. It's kind of got a rock and roll feel to it, there's a part that sounds kind of drone, there is a solo guitar spot that sounds almost like two mandolins playing together and just a lot of other stuff going on in it."

For his solo section of the concert, Rafferty will play more modern compositions. Rafferty said that all of the pieces from his solo half are "very much influenced by popular music and rhythmically accessible to any audience." There also will be classical pieces intertwined with the modern pieces.

Rafferty said that in the past he has always wanted to do a holiday concert that he could use his own arrangements for. He said this is the perfect time of the year for a concert because the audience will be in high spirits.

"I always look forward to Christmas gigs," Ross said. "It is so fun to perform nostalgic music for our audience this time of year."

The Double Fret performance will be held at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Robert F. and Gertrude L. Shuck Music Recital Hall. Tickets are available at the River Campus box office for $10. For more information call 573-651-2265.