After six months of intense rehearsals, cellist Pamela Roberts and pianist Sheila Harwood are ready to make their debut as Fauna Vivace.

“What we are hoping to do is provide the basis for a lot of chamber music beyond the duo so we can play piano trios and quintets,” Roberts said. “It is always helpful to have a pianist who is up to speed on chamber music and then we can pull other people in as we choose repertoire.”

Fauna Vivace will present “Music With A Mission,” a one-hour classical music concert, at 3:30 p.m. July 14 at Community United Methodist Church, 130 Church Lane in Port Hadlock.

“The church is really quite a lovely hall,” Roberts said. “It is intimate. Very nice acoustics.”

Entry is by donation, with proceeds benefiting the Recovery Cafe Jefferson County, which will offer services to the homeless, mentally ill, alcoholics and drug addicts when it opens in August.

“The Recovery Cafe is a program that features a model that has proven successful,” Roberts said. “It supports and creates positive, warm, loving, community for people experiencing traumatic challenges.”

The concert will be a quick musical jaunt, Roberts said.

“Come and listen to music, hear a short spiel about the benefit and where the funds are going to and at the end we will have a light reception.”

Both Roberts and Harwood are committed to the cause, Roberts said.

“I think the emphasis really should be on the good works aspect of it. That is what I really want people to realize, that we can sit in a nice place that is contemplative and enjoy some of the greatest music ever written and in the process of doing that we can come together as a community to do something good for people in our community who really are in need of additional support.”

In addition to Roberts and Harwood, the concert will feature percussionist Howard Gilbert, Roberts’ husband. Both Roberts and Gilbert performed for decades with the Seattle Symphony before retiring in Jefferson County.

“I really enjoy hearing her play,” Gilbert said of his wife. “She was very busy in Seattle. We were both working all the time and didn’t have much life together, just going from job to job. It is sort of peaceful here.”

Gilbert promises a show to remember.

“The playing is phenomenal,” he said. “The pianist is really a wonderful player. A very powerful player.”

Pastor Scott Rosekrans said he is excited about the benefit concert.

“Sheila, Pam and Howard have played for us on Sunday mornings and have brought a ‘wow’ factor to our service leaving the congregation wanting more. We’ve discovered that our recently remodeled sanctuary offers a great venue for musicians looking for a place to play and that they’d be a nice addition to our quarterly concert series that allows us to bring music to the Tri-Area and raise awareness about the needs of our community.”

Roberts and Harwood co-founded Fauna Vivace with the vision of bringing classical chamber music to Jefferson County audiences, Roberts said.

Roberts studied cello with Eva Heinitz and Toby Saks at the University of Washington. She was faculty cellist at the University of Puget Sound and a freelancing soloist and chamber musician in Seattle.

Harwood studied piano with Béla Síki at the University of Washington followed by advanced studies at London’s Royal Academy of Music. She began her teaching career at the UW and then worked as a pianist and teacher in the greater Seattle area.

Gilbert studied percussion with Joe Amato, principal percussionist of the Portland Symphony, and Otis “Candy” Finch, drummer with Dizzy Gillespie. Gilbert became a percussionist in the Seattle Symphony and freelancing jazz drummer.

The concert opens with a performance of the Sonata in G major for viola da gamba and harpsichord by J.S. Bach, featuring Roberts and Harwood on cello and piano. Compositions by Debussy, Beethoven, and Rachmaninoff will be performed, as well as selections from Bartók, featuring Howard Gilbert on percussion.

“Some of the pieces we won’t play in their entirety,” Roberts said. “We will keep it short and sweet, down to about an hour program so people can come and enjoy a free concert and then go home and eat dinner and not have it drag on too long.”

There are three encore pieces prepared should the audience demand more, Roberts said.