TICKETS are $10 General/$5 Student. End time is not set.

Concerts and events made possible, in part, with support from the Wells Philanthropic Services provided by grants from the John, Anna, and Martha Jane Fields Memorial Trust Foundation and the Florence V. Carroll Charitable Trust, The Esther and George Jaruga Charitable Foundation, the Community Foundation of St. Joseph County's ArtsEverywhere initiative, and the Arts Project Support Grant and Arts Recovery Grant through the Indiana Arts Commission.

Our Home Grown Jazz Performance Series presents vocalist/flutist Eve Kelly and pianist Joseph Giuseppe De Gregorio. We want to celebrate our local talent of our community. We have many hidden gems and hope that Merriman' Playhouse will offer opportunities to let these gems shine and share their other talents to the community.

SAMPLE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CXeC7vBLaA

This duo– joined both in life and in music, met after a chance encounter in Casablanca. They achieve an intimate chemistry and deliver a dynamic show that gives equal measure to improvisation and a celebration of the American Song-Book. Their recent recording entitled, Auget Vitam (life more abundant) is the meaning of their two names in Latin and represents how their union has amplified their shared musical gifts and enriched each other's lives.

Eve Kelly is a singer and multi-instrumentalist. Her sound is a fusion of old country, acoustic blues and jazz. Devoid of affectation her vocals are delivered with unflinching emotional honesty. Her day job is at the University of Notre Dame where she works to advance issues of diversity and inclusion and educational access.

Giuseppe “Joe” De Gregorio, Italian pianist and composer, is the winner of the 2009 Luca Flores Jazz Competition and the 2015 Monte Carlo International Competition for Jazz Soloist. He has toured extensively throughout Europe, North Africa and the United States. His sound melds jazz, Italian operatic melos, and traditional gospel. https://joedegregorio.com/

Giuseppe,  born in Rome, Italy, is a jazz pianist, composer, bandleader, vocalist, arranger, producer & educator. He has been active as a performer for over ten years on three continents: Europe, North Africa and USA (New York City). He is the founder of Paris Gospel Jam (Paris, 2012), NYC Gospel Jazz Syndicate (New York, 2016), Afro-Med International Jazz Network (Casablanca 2020). Joeseph has recorded six self-produced albums, four as a leader and two as a co-leader.

He's lived and played in various European major cities including Barcellona, Brussels and Paris where he performed at the Sunside Jazz Club with four different projects, three as bandleader and one as sideman (2012-2015). Giuseppe lived and played in New York (2016-2019), where throughout the summer of 2019 I performed with Ari Hoenig, Joel Fram and Jonathan Blake . On April 28, 2019 he played with the trio in my name at the Parco Della Musica in Rome (Libero! Showcase). He lived and performed on a steady basis in Morocco (Essaouira, Tanger, Casablanca and Rabat, 2009-2020).

Born in Chicago and raised in southwest Michigan, Eve has been appointed as the University of Notre Dame’s first diversity and inclusion program manager. Eve has worked with students, faculty and staff throughout her career at five institutions and excels in advocacy and mediation, cultural competencies and facilitation in issues of diversity, equity and inclusion. Most recently, Eve was in the College of Science at Notre Dame where she served as an assistant advising professor. An alumna of the University of Michigan for both a bachelor’s degree in Africana studies and a master’s degree in social work, Eve is pursuing a doctorate in diversity and equity in education from the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign with an expected graduation of May 2023.