TICKETS are $10 General/$5 Student. End time is estimate.

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.

 Harry Tonchev Trio with special guest Jarod Bufe

Harry Tonchev - guitar

Jarod Bufe - tenor sax

Ben Dillinger - bass

Gustavo Cortinas - drums

Harry Tonchev is a jazz guitarist who is very active in Chicago and central Illinois. His high energy trio focuses on improvisational music by exploring a mixture of originals and standards from the Great American Songbook. His conversational approach to improvised music keeps audiences engaged.

Harry Tonchev is a Bulgarian-American jazz guitarist who currently lives and performs in the Chicago and central Illinois area. He holds a B.A. in music performance from University of Central Oklahoma, B.S. in electrical engineering from University of Oklahoma and M.S. in electrical engineering from Oklahoma State University. While living in Oklahoma, Harry has performed with Oklahoma City Jazz Orchestra, OKC Lyric Theatre, Brian Gorrell and the Jazz Company, and many other jazz and rock groups. As time permits, Harry enjoys the company of his wife and two kids, going to jazz jam sessions and further developing his improvisational music skills.

A graduate of Loyola University New Orleans (BM Jazz, Minor in Philosophy), and Northwestern University (MM Jazz), Gustavo Cortiñas has developed a successful career in the US for over a decade, leading and accompanying ensembles in renowned stages and festivals in North America, Latin America, Asia, and Europe. “Cortiñas’ music is uplifting, robust, melodic, and gets your body moving; it’s an exciting blend of the artist’s musical influences from jazz and Latin America, including his native Mexico” (DOWNBEAT). This can be heard on his records as a leader, “Snapshot” (2013), “a Smörgåsbord of the moods and nuances that make up the human experience... an idiosyncratic album that intrinsically fuses the personal to the universal” (JAZZIZ); and “ESSE” (Origin Arts 2017): “With the cohesive and captivating Esse, Cortiñas has created superb work that balances refreshingly inventive ideas with high-caliber musicianship. This exquisite and continuously gripping record is a testament to Cortiñas’ triple threat of skills as dynamic performer, agile bandleader and brilliant composer.” (Chicago Jazz). Cortiñas is a member of the Chicago Jazz Composer’s Collective, performing regularly for their monthly residency at Chicago’s very own Green Mill.

Currently, with a grant from the Mexican National Endowment of the Arts (FONCA), Gustavo is working on his fourth project as a leader: Kind Regards, which features original songs composed of both lyrics and music by Cortiñas, which attempt to bridge gaps and community in today’s polarized world. at Northwestern University, studying under Willie Jones III and Victor Goines. Proximity to a network of gifted musicians in the Chicago area gave him the opportunity to lead his own groups and to support, as a sideman, some of the city’s great artists. Cortiñas graduated from Northwestern in the spring of 2013 with a Master of Music degree. A month later he released his debut record “Snapshot” which earned him critical acclaim internationally. Since then he has been performing regularly in Chicago, and touring throughout the USA, Latin America, Europe and Asia.

Saxophonist Jarod Bufe has been active in the realms of woodwind repair and music performance since moving to Chicago in 1996. Soon after arriving, he established himself as one of the first-call saxophone repairmen in the area, while performing primarily as a section player in local big bands. In the early 2010s, his affiliation with the musician-curated Ratchet Series at the Skylark in Pilsen reinvigorated his longtime interest in original composition and improvisation in small group contexts. Today, Jarod maintains an active repair practice—counting many of Chicago's finest professional musicians and music educators among his loyal clientele—while regularly performing his original music with his quartet and trio at such area venues as FitzGerald's, the Whistler, and Elastic Arts. His principal collaborators to date include guitarist Tim Stine, bassist Matt Ulery, and drummer Jon Deitemyer, as well as bassists Anton Hatwich and Christian Dillingham, and drummers Quin Kirchner and Frank Rosaly. New Spaces, the debut album by the Jarod Bufe Quartet, was released by Origin Records in 2018.

Ben Dillinger is an upright and electric bassist, composer, and educator who has been working professionally in Chicago for the past 10 years. 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.