MonoreCrossing2Valley City (CSi)  Monroe Crossing will perform at the Valley City Band Shell on  Wednesday, July 22,  at 7:15-p.m. located at 440 4th Street. Southwest. The performance is free, however a freewill donation is asked to support the City Park Band Shell, go to the Friends of City Park Band Shell group on Facebook. 

The performance is part of the Valley City Parks and Recreation’s “Music at the Courthouse Lawn” series.

There will be a freewill picnic supper served before the concert provided by MarketPlace Foods.

(In case of inclement weather, the program will be at the VCSU Music building.)

Their superb musicianship and on-stage rapport have entertained audiences across the United States, Canada and Europe.   “This group is very entertaining and fun to watch and they like to interact with crowds of all ages,” Diane Sommerfeld of the VCPR said. “The ND Council of the Arts & the Bridges Arts Council of Valley City were instrumental in making this possible.”

Monroe Crossing is from the Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minn., area and plays bluegrass music. The group’s name, Monroe Crossing, is in honor of Bill Monroe, a well known bluegrass musician and singer from the 1930s.

 The band performs a blend of classic bluegrass, bluegrass gospel and its own original music.

In the event of rain, the band will perform in the Valley City State University music building on the university’s campus.

The “Music at the Courthouse Lawn” series is funded in part by the North Dakota Council of the Arts and the Bridges Art Council of Valley City.

Monroe Crossing will also be performing at 7 p.m. Thursday, July 30, at the Arts Center in Jamestown. Tickets are available at the Arts Center and are $30 for Jamestown Fine Arts Association members and $35 for nonmembers.

Founded in 2000, Monroe Crossing plays 140-150 shows each year, to include The Big Top Chautauqua in Bayfield WI, Branson’s Silver Dollar City, the legendary Ozark Folk Center in Mountain View AR, The Kennedy Center in Washington DC, and a command performance at Carnegie Hall in 2014 following their debut concert there in 2013! They are the only bluegrass band ever inducted into the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame (2007), and have been invited twice (2007, 2014) by the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) as an Official Showcase Artist at the IBMA World of Bluegrass convention.

Just released in January, 2015, “Because You Asked” is Monroe Crossing’s 14th CD in their 15 years together. One of their trademarks is their willingness to perform audience requests. Since it’s such a large part of each show, they assembled a collection of popular requests recorded live throughout the past year for this latest CD.

Included in their discography is composer Carol Barnett’s “The World Beloved: A Bluegrass Mass,” recorded with the VocalEssence Ensemble Singers in 2007. They have been honored to perform this work over fifty times with choirs from coast to coast.