Romance can be described as making beautiful music together. That is what happens when cellist Hannah Alkire and guitarist Joe Scott collaborate.

The duo known as Acoustic Eidolon will perform Sunday at LaPorte High School Auditorium, presented by the LaPorte Community Concert Association.

“The music began and the friendship began first,” Alkire said via phone from Oregon, where Acoustic Eidolon was set to play a concert that evening.

She recalled doing studio work for Cactus Flower in Boulder, Colo., and being taught by the late Barb Poppe at Scott's studio, which was across the street and three houses away from Alkire's home.

Three years later, Scott suggested pairing his 14-string double-neck guitar, called a guitjo, with cello to Alkire.

“He had this instrument he invented based on acoustic guitar. I invited him over to my house that time,” she said.

“We played, and literally we just felt like we had to pursue that sound. We never heard anything like it. Even guitar and cello is still a little bit unusual. At the time there was nobody doing anything like it. It just was magic.”

Formed in 1998, Acoustic Eidolon offers a high-energy show aimed at connecting with the audience.

“This concert will be a mixture of about half original music and half covers. It's also a mix of instrumental and vocals. It's going to cross styles. It's going to move through flamenco, Celtic, Americana and then the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Queen and Joni Mitchell,” Alkire said.

“It's going to be a nice mix of good memories of people and new things. It also follows the influences that we travel through with our music that then get incorporated into our music.”

The concert is part of the first tour promoting Acoustic Eidolon's 12th CD, “A Tree Finds Its Voice.”

“It was inspired by the fact that we just had a brand new cello and guitar built from the exact same pieces of wood from the exact same trees,” Alkire said about the cello, crafted by Christopher Dungey, and the guitar, crafted by Beau Hannam.

Alkire discovered cello at age 8, when her parents, Betty and Richard, took her to a classical concert.

Acoustic Eidolon perform approximately 120 concerts — including Europe — annually and offer community outreach in conjunction with some performances.

“As musicians we're always together. We're always traveling. We're always giving concerts and on tour,” Alkire said.

“To see a couple that can actually thrive under those circumstances and then does something like music on top of it, I feel like it gives people hope. It makes them believe in what can be or what a love can look like.”

Jessi Virtusio is a freelance writer for the Post-Tribune.