Merrimans' Playhouse welcomes The Mike Conrad Trio as they revisit debut album "Reconnect"

SOUTH BEND — The Mike Conrad Trio performs at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 12 at Merrimans’ Playhouse, 401 E. Colfax Ave., Suite 135.

Led by pianist Mike Conrad, the trio features Katie Ernst (Chicago bassist, Twin Talk) and Cassius Goens III (Indianapolis-based drummer).

For their fall 2023 tour, the trio is revisiting music from their debut album, 2022’s “Reconnect,” while diving into some brand new compositions inspired by his father, mother, brothers, sisters, wife and daughter.

Conrad is a composer and improviser currently serving as assistant professor of jazz studies at the University of Northern Iowa.

His projects include a suite of four Iowa-inspired big band pieces recorded by the Iowa Jazz Composers Orchestra, areimagination of Beethoven’s third symphony in collaboration with the Berlin-based Stegreif Orchester and his mixed chamber jazz ensemble the All Angles Orchestra, which released an album of original music featuring Alex Sipiagin in 2017.

Ernst is co-leader of the Chicago-based jazz trio Twin Talk and has received critical acclaim for her Dorothy Parker poetry song cycle “Little Words,” which premiered at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC in 2015.

Goens plays throughout Indiana and Iowa with a host of local jazz artists, including the Indianapolis-based groups Kool’s Bazaar, The Matt Wilson Band, The Marlin McKay Group and Premium Blend. In 2011, he released his debut album, “Transition,” which features his original compositions as well as his quintet Groove Theory.

Tickets are $10-$5.

For more information, call 574-310-9977 or visit merrimansplayhouse.org.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: The Mike Conrad Trio plays at Merrimans' Playhouse