The word is out. The acoustics in Jasper’s St. Mary and St George Anglican Church are so good that Celtara, an acoustic Celtic music group just had to try it out.

“We have heard so much from other musicians that the sound is rich and resonant,” said Tami Cooper, spokesperson for the five Edmonton-based musicians. “It’s such a pleasure to play in such venues, because there is a beautiful natural reverberation and warmth to the sound.”

Celtara has been together since 2004, but “we have been playing Celtic music for so long that it’s hard to remember what drew each of us there. We’ve all been involved in many different forms of music and still are, but this music is just so much fun to play,” said Cooper.

“It’s the kind of music that demands that you really know how to play your instrument well, so you absolutely need technique, but it is so expressive as well, that it really appeals to us on so many levels. It’s such a direct link historically to other regular people, because many of the songs we sing are the stories of the day from a couple of hundred years ago. The instrumentals are still being handed down aurally to this day.”

Celtara is comprised of Cooper, flute and vocals, Bonnie Gregory, fiddle, harp and vocals, Steve Bell, accordion, piano and vocals, Andreas Illig, guitar, bousouki, and Mark Arnison, percussion and vocals.

“We met each other in sessions, heard each others bands--Sheela na Gigh, Uisce Scona, Scona Brae, Jolly Beggars, Murphy’s Law, Fair Billy, and others. We got together, changed our name about 18 times and finally settled on Darkwood for about 3 years, but realized finally that we shared the name with someone else with a prior claim. After months of debates and web searches we’ve rechristened ourselves Celtara and it’s ours all ours!”

The Saturday evening concert is in support of ‘Until the Morning Light’, a CD Celtara released last November. The doors open at 6.30 pm and the concert begins at 7 pm. Tickets are $12 at Tekarra Color Lab or $15 at the door.