TICKETS are $20 General/$10 Student.

There will NOT be a cash bar available at this concert. NO BYOB. You are welcome to bring in food however.

Concert made possible by the Wells Fargo Grant from the Stanley A. and Flora P. Clark Memorial Community Trust Foundation.

Bat Hawk is a jazz fusion group, native to Chicago, founded by mandolinist/composer Devin Clara Fanslow. With a love for genre bending, their sound draws from progressive rock, folk, jazz and chamber music. Bat Hawk is a living link between the musical traditions of the past and the bold, experiment.

Devin Clara is a composer, performer, and game developer based in Chicago IL. As a performer, her interests vary widely between genre and instrumentation, favoring unusual instruments such as the electric mandolin. After completing a Masters degree from DePaul University in Jazz Composition, she has since made efforts to involve herself in mixed media disciplines. She has a love for storytelling, music, and interactivity in video games, of which comes through in her live performances with groups such as Bat Hawk and Fire Thief. As a transgender woman in the arts, she hopes to contribute towards a destruction of expectation as well as a respect for tradition, from the perspective of her unique lived experience.

Sam Pilnick is a Chicago based Saxophonist, Multi-Instrumentalist and Music Educator. Sam received his Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education and Jazz Studies at the Crane School of Music in Potsdam and his Masters Degree in Jazz Performance from Western Michigan University. Sam is currently the band and jazz band director at the Maple School in Northbrook, IL. As a performer and composer, Sam explores and performs in a variety of styles including jazz, contemporary, electronic, and creative music for a variety of ensembles and solo works. He leads The Sam Pilnick Project, who released three EP’s Skylark (2019), Pure Imagination (2018) and East Coast Transplant (2017). He also leads and composes for his new ensemble Sam Pilnick’s Nonet Project, which is heavily influenced by Sam’s love of big band music, small group improvisation, and the desire to explore different timbral experiences, while utilizing traditional jazz instruments. The Nonet Project released their first album The Adler Suite in the spring of 2021 on Outside in Music’s ‘Next Level’ imprint. He is also a freelance musician in Chicago who performs with the Chicago Freedom Ensemble and Devin Clara’s Bat Hawk.

Meghan Stagl  has loved music since the tender age of 6, when she first started taking piano lessons. Born and raised in the north suburbs of Chicago, she continued her studies in music, participating in her high school orchestra and choir, and directing the student-led a cappella ensemble her senior year. In college, Meghan continued her pursuit of music, and became interested in jazz, studying piano and voice with Steve Talaga, Edye Evans Hyde, and Dr. Brian Coyle.  In recognition of her participation and leadership in numerous jazz ensembles, she received the Jazz Jury Award and the Senior Jazz Award, along with the Music Senior Seminar Award for her capstone research project. Meghan then attended Western Michigan University, where she obtained her M.M. in Jazz Performance.  While there, she participated in the Downbeat-Award winning ensemble Gold Company along with numerous other groups, and has had the distinct pleasure of singing and studying with artists such as Peter Eldridge, Andrew Rathbun, Greg Jasperse, Keith Hall, Matthew Fries, Sunny Wilkinson, Tammy McCann, and Jeremy Siskind. Now Meghan lives in the Chicago area and has been playing with various groups such as Sam Pilnick's Nonet Project and Gustavo Cortinas Kind Regards.

Kyle McComb is a musician, composer, and music educator living in Chicago. After growing up in the south Chicago suburbs, he studied jazz percussion at Northern Illinois University, receiving his Bachelor’s of Music Performance in May 2018. He has since established himself as a versatile performer/improviser/composer, equally at home in Chicago's jazz and rock scenes.

Ben Dillinger is an upright and electric bassist, composer, and educator who has been working professionally in Chicago for the past 10 years. He has performed with various artists such as Astro Samurai, Imagery Converter, Devin Clara’s Bat Hawk, Tommaso Moretti, Kyle Madsen, Sam Pilnick, among others. His formal training is in jazz performance and composition, but has also performed in many different musical settings including classical, musical theater, rock, and popular music. As an educator he has taught at Roosevelt University, Morton College, and The Chicago High School of Performing Arts (ChiArts), both in private lessons and in a classroom setting.