An interesting pairing of musical styles gets matched with an interesting venue to play in Friday, with a performance by piano and clarinet duo Tom Roberts and Susanne Ortner at an art studio Uptown.

Sculptor James Simon is opening up his studio -- which also hosts the Gist Street Reading Series -- for the duo, who play a fusion of the Jewish folk music klezmer and Harlem stride, an early form of jazz piano. Roberts, a Pittsburgh native well-known to local jazz fans, said the two styles have similar roots that make the fusion surprisingly easy on the ears.

"Klezmer and Harlem stride piano were all happening about the same time. There was a big push of European Jewish immigrants hitting the northern part of the U.S., all around the same time that black migration was happening," Roberts said. "We're fusing a Creole-klezmer fusion."

Roberts and Ortner, who have been playing together since early last year, have taken the fusion a step further: They were married in December.

James Simon Sculpture Studio, 305 Gist St., Uptown (near the Oakland side of the Birmingham Bridge), 8 p.m Friday. Tickets $10; 412-434-5629.