Summer in St. Mary's: Jim Gill brings popular children's concert back to Monroe
An award-winning children’s performer is making a return trip to Monroe.
Jim Gill will host a 45-minute family concert at 7 p.m. Wednesday at St. Mary’s Park Bandshell, 111 W. Elm Ave. In the event of rain, an indoor location will be announced Wednesday.
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The event is part of the Concert in the Park series sponsored by the City of Monroe’s Parks and Recreation department. Although most concerts in the series are held on Thursdays, Gill will perform Wednesday. His appearance also is sponsored by the Great Start Collaborative of Monroe County.
Admission is free. Attendees should bring blankets or lawn chairs.
Children’s activities will be set up; activities are sponsored by Great Start Collaborative and the Monroe Family YMCA. The Monroe County Library System is bringing its bookmobile to the park at 5:30 p.m. The City of Monroe Police Department also will give away items. An ice cream truck may stop at the park. No food trucks are scheduled for this park event.
Gill’s concerts, honed over nearly 30 years of touring, involve lots of movement and silly songs. They also encourage kids to move and adults to interact with their kids.
Gill said his shows are tailored to children from toddlers through those in early grades. Some of his popular songs are "Stick to the Glue," "The Sneezing Song," "Beethoven's Five Finger Play," "Silly Dance Contest" and "Truck Stop."
“The concert is filled with my active musical games, and that is what folks enjoy about it,” Gill told The News. “There is very little sitting still. It’s an active sing-along, clap-along and dance-along with lots of opportunity for children and family members—parents, grandparents and other caring adults — to join in the play together. The more people who come to sing, dance and play along, the better.”
Gill particularly enjoys when dads get into the music.
“There are lots of opportunities for parents to toss their kids up in the air and spin them around, and that type of play is often most enjoyed by the dads. That is fun for me to watch as I am singing,” Gill said.
Gill of Chicago is a sought-after performer who travels the country. He’s released several award-winning music CDs and books.
“My banjo and I travel all across the country, sometimes by car and sometimes by plane. I live in Chicago, so I will be driving to Monroe. Last week I flew out east to lead a concert on the Jersey shore. The week after my visit to Monroe, I will fly out west to Washington state for a concert,” Gill said.
Gill has performed in Monroe several times. The last time was in 2015.
“I have been to Monroe a number of times over the years, and I am so excited to be returning,” Gill said. "I have, in the past, led community concerts that were sponsored by Monroe County Intermediate School District as well as a few concerts that were hosted by the Monroe County Library System. I know that some of the early childhood teachers in the area use my songs in their work with children in the classrooms and that some of the librarians use my songs as part of their library story time programming.”
Amy Zarend, director of Great Start Collaborative of Monroe County, thought it was a good time to bring Gill back to town.
“The Great Start Collaborative and the City of Monroe Parks and Recreation department began a partnership this spring to work together to bring more engagement to the local parks for children and families. We have a number of activities planned and more in the works. Our planning discussions led to the ever-popular summer concert series, and the idea for a child-focused program came from that. At the forefront of my mind was Jim Gill. Jim Gill is a community and family favorite! It's been a number of years since he's been in the community, so it seemed like the perfect time to bring him back and introduce him to the littlest citizens of Monroe County,” Zarend said. “My own teenage children can still sing some of his songs."
Gill is a trained children development specialist. He didn’t anticipate the path his career would take.
“I never planned to travel around the country leading concerts,” he said. “I led developmental playgroups for families of children with special needs and, occasionally, school groups and libraries would ask me if I would share the songs that I created for those playgroups in a concert. And then those requests became more and more frequent.”
Despite technology's hold on children's attention, Gill has found that children today still love active play.
“Children want to play, and my concerts are filled with opportunities to play. It is music play, but it is play. I studied child development in graduate school, and the particular focus of my studies was play: How children learn through play and all of the ways that caring adults help young children learn while we play with them or create opportunities for them to play,” Gill said. “Children are as eager as ever to jump, dance and actively play, especially when they have a caring adult that is there to share the play experience with them."
In addition to his children’s concerts, Gill also offers a concert with a string quartet.
“I have a couple of those planned that I have to spend some extra preparation for, and I would also like to add some new pieces to that concert. Last year I performed this concert with a string quartet from the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra. In a few weeks I will be performing the concert with members of the Omaha Symphony Orchestra,” Gill said. “It is a concert that is in the same spirit as what I will be bringing to Monroe in a solo fashion. But in a concert with a string quartet, there are two violins, a viola and a cello on stage with me and my banjo. It is a big and wonderful sound.”
To see a clip from a Gill concert, visit his YouTube channel.
On the Net: www.jimgill.com, https://www.facebook.com/jimgillmusicplay
This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Jim Gill brings popular children's concert back to Monroe
