TICKETS are $15 General/$6 Student. Concert is one long set. End time is approximately 9:00 pm.

Chad McCullough's FIRESTARTER brings Australian master improviser and trumpet player to the Midwest for four special gigs. Featuring McCullough on trumpet and newly designed four-valve flugelhorn, Tinkler on trumpet, John Christensen on bass, and Jon Deitemyer on drums.

Chad McCullough - 4-valve flugel 

Scott Tinkler - trumpet  

John Christensen - bass  

Jon Deitemyer - drums

Heralded for his “solos of mercurial poetry and high craft.” (Chicago Tribune) Chicago-based trumpeter/composer Chad McCullough is active throughout the world. Dan McClenaghan writes, “He is a rare instrumentalist who makes each note sound as if it were imbued with a deeper meaning. Certainly a player with great chops, his approach is one that is measured and deliberate, often introspective, sometimes gorgeously melancholic, and one that employs a continuity of mood and atmosphere …” His latest album, Forward was released in the Fall of 2020, and was featured in several “Best Jazz Releases of the year” lists, including the Chicago Tribune, and All About Jazz. Featuring the stellar trio of Matt Ulery, Rob Clearfield, and Jon Deitemyer, with post-production and programming by Ryan Cohan. It is on the Outside In Music label.

His bands have performed at many festivals, including the Festival of New Trumpet Music (New York), the GG Jazz Festival (Russia), Chicago Jazz Festival, The Earshot Jazz Festival (Seattle), Halifax Jazz Festival, and The Appeltuin Jazz Festival (Belgium). His albums have been released internationally on Origin Records, ears&eyes records, Monks and Thieves, and Shifting Paradigm. He’s a frequent collaborator with many musicians/ensembles, including groups with; Bram Weijters, Matt Ulery, Roger Ingram, Dana Hall, Ryan Shultz, Luke Malewicz, James Davis, Rob Clearfield, and Tim Hagans and has performed with Maria Schneider, Miguel Zenon, Stafford James, Michael Shrieve, Avishai Cohen, Kendrick Scott, Claudio Roditi, Chad Lefkowitz-Brown, Charles Tolliver, Ambrose Akinmuserie, Steve Coleman, Dave Douglas, and many more.

Chad holds a M.M. from the University of Washington, and a B.M. from the University of Idaho, where he was a Lionel Hampton Scholar, and was the first student to graduate with a jazz emphasis on his degree. In 2009 he participated in the jazz & creative music workshop at the Banff Centre in Canada. He was awarded a DCASE grant for an intensive study with Grammy-nominated trumpeter Tim Hagans from the City of Chicago, and is currently on the jazz faculty at DePaul University and the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Chad plays custom AR Resonance mouthpieces and trumpets, and a Hub Van Laar flugelhorn. chadmccullough.com

Australian trumpeter Scott Tinkler has been performing since 1983 and is well known for his many brilliant incarnations as an ensemble player, solo and recording artist. He is a founding member and previous Associate Artistic Director of the Australian Art Orchestra and plays regularly in Australia in duos, trios and quartets with musicians including Marc Hannaford, Simon Barker, Paul Grabowsky, Erkki Veltheim, Ken Eadie, Carl Dewhurst, Scott McConnachie and Anthony Pateras. 

His current projects include: North of North with voilinist Erkki Veltheim and pianist Anthony Pateras. This ensemble tours Europe regularly and has released two albums   drawing from Xenakian architextures, Carterian set theory, Carnatic music, sharp-edged pointillism & orchestrational symbiosis in chamber-oriented improvisations. A second long term project is Chiri with the Australian drummer Simon Barker, Korean Pansori singer Bae Il Dong. In 2011, at the invitation of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs, Chiri toured Korea, Egypt, Lebanon, Israel, Turkey, Cyprus and Jordan, North Korea, followed by a performance at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. and two tours of Korea in 2012. Chiri as released three critically acclaimed albums.Tinkler is also involved in an ongoing solo project that uses extended and prepared techniques; his first solo trumpet album called Backwards was released by Extreme in 2007.

Tinkler has been involved in a range of projects with the composer and violinist John Rodgers, working in ensembles such as Ellision, Hydromus Krysogast and the Antripodean Collective. Notably, Rodgers composed Glass, a concerto featuring Tinkler as soloist performed with the London Sinfonietta, which premiered at the 2010 Adelaide Festival of Arts. In the early '90s Tinkler performed and studied with Australian tenor saxophonist, Mark Simmonds, who had studied with George Coleman in New York. Simmonds introduced Tinkler to extended practice on the cycle of 5ths using many harmonic substitutions involving the diminished substitution theory, rhythm cycles and polyrhythms as a basis for his highly fuelled jazz-based music, which can be traced to earlier developments by John Coltrane.

Throughout Tinkler's career he has been interested in not only exploring and developing improvised music stemming from jazz, but also other forms of music and the cultures they come from. This has led to musical collaborations with Indian and Korean musicians, as well as with indigenous musicians from Australia. Beginning in 1995, Tinkler's involvement with Indian Carnatic musicians (led by Guru Kaaraikkudi Mani Guru Kaaraikkudi Mani ) has evolved into a longstanding and deep association. Tinkler has travelled to India five times for performances, as well as touring Australia and Europe with the project. Tinkler has collaborated with a range of international artists over the past decade including Jason Moran, Tim Berne, Mark Helias, Anthony Burr, Tony Buck, Oscar Noriaga and Han Bennink. In 2003 Tinkler travelled with his longtime associate Paul Grabowsky to New York to record an album of Grabowsky's original music with Branford Marsalis, Joe Lovano, Ed Schuller and Jeff "Tain" Watts. Tales of Time and Space was released on the Warner label to stunning reviews, many highlighting Tinkler's unique contribution to Grabowsky's music.

Scott has received grants and invitations to perform through out the world in many diverse and rewarding situations in countries such as China, The Netherlands, America, Vietnam, France, India, Germany, Mexico, Korea, Japan, Norway and Tanzania.

Recipient of the of the 2016 Outstanding Musician Melbourne Music Prize for Outstanding Musician

Recipient of the 2008/2009 Australia Council Music Fellowship

Winner of the National Jazz Award 1996

Winner of the 1995 ARIA Award for Best Jazz Release: FIRE

Winner of the 1998 ARIA Award for Best Jazz Release: The Future in Today

Jon Deitemyer has established himself as a unique and versatile voice in modern jazz drumming. After graduating from the esteemed University of North Texas where he studied with Ed Soph and Lynn Seaton, Jon settled in Chicago and quickly became a fixture in the city's expansive creative music community. Jon has performed and/or recorded with Matt Ulery (Greenleaf), Zach Brock, Alyssa Allgood, Ethan Iverson, Patricia Barber (Concord), Phil Markowitz, Paul Mutzabaugh’s Unknown New, Ben Paterson (MaxJazz), Grazyna Auguscik (EMI), Renee Fleming, Lynne Arriale, and American Public Media’s “Prairie Home Companion”. Jon is also an active educator, with positions at Northwestern University and Loyola University. In 2016 Jon debuted the full-length album Tall Taleson ears&eyes Records. Jon is a proud partner of Canopus Drums.

Award winning bassist, composer and Shifting Paradigm recording artist John Christensen supplies an open-hearted solidity and adventurous spirit to all of his music endeavors. With an appetite for expressing in many musical genres and situations, John has found a unique compositional voice, as demonstrated on his highly acclaimed debut album as a leader, Dear Friend.

While an ardent student and practitioner of improvised Black American Music, John’s music also has deep roots in Rock, Folk, and Americana. Content to have his bass playing compared to Charlie Haden’s lyricism, as in reviews for Johannes Wallmann’s latest album Precarious Towers, he’s also happy to have comparisons difficult to find. His compositions strive toward a hopefulness and appreciation for the beauty and awe of life, and the wonder of small, important things.

John Christensen began his bass studies with Chris Wood in high school. After brief stints at Berklee College and North Texas, John moved to San Francisco and played in the burgeoning music scene during the late 90’s. Since Moving to Wisconsin in 1999 John has become a highly sought-after side musician, playing with numerous regional and international artists and bands. He leads his own groups and is also a co-founder of Lesser Lakes Trio with longtime collaborators Devin Drobka and Jamie Breiwick as well as KASE, an improvised hip hop trio with Jamie and Turntablist Jordan Lee.

Concerts and events made possible, in part, with support from the Wells Fargo Philanthropic Services Private Trust Foundations, which include grants from the Stanley A. and Flora P. Clark Memorial Community Trust Foundation (2020-2021; 2022-2023 seasons), the John, Anna, and Martha Jane Fields Memorial Trust Foundation (2021-2022; 2022-2023 seasons), and the Florence V. Carroll Charitable Trust (2021-2022; 2022-2023; 2023-2024 seasons). Special concert event support provided by the Arts Midwest Grow, Invest, Gather (GIG) Fund grant (2022-2023 season). Activities are made possible in part by the Arts Organization Support (AOS), Indiana Arts Commission, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency (2023-2024 season).

Concerts and events made possible, in part, with support from The Esther and George Jaruga Charitable Foundation (2020-2023 seasons). The Student and Home Grown Series concerts made possible, in part, with support from the ArtsEverywhere Grant from the Community Foundation of St. Joseph County, and the Arts Project Support Grant and the Arts Recovery Grant through the Indiana Arts Commission.