ELLY GRIMM

   • Leader & Times

Those looking for some musical fun in the near future will soon have just that thanks to Liberal Memorial Library and the summer reading program.

Musician Monty Harper will be bringing his show to Liberal Memorial Library at 1 p.m. Tuesday, June 16, and as he tells it, music has always been a big part of his life.

“Music’s always been big for me. I took piano lessons when I was young, and I was in marching band playing the trumpet,” Harper said. “Sometime along the way, my parents gave me a guitar for Christmas, and just for fun, I started writing songs with it, so it's always come a little bit naturally to me. I think that makes me unique as a children's performer – a lot of children's performers start off as educators using music in their teaching, and then become full-time musicians, or they start off as musicians for adults, then they have their own kids, then they start writing music for kids. I got my degree in mathematics, and then I just started writing music for kids.”

Eventually, that led to Harper performing during summer reading program events.

“I got started around 1989 just out of college, and it was a hobby. I was writing songs for fun, and I’d always kind of wanted to write stuff for kids because that's fun and I started to get asked to come and perform places and I thought ‘This could be a career,” Harper said. “My first thought was I would be a math teacher, because I’d gotten my master's degree in mathematics, but by the time I graduated, I was doing a lot of performing, so I just decided to go for it. I made my living at that exclusively for a long time, and I'm still doing it part time and trying to get back into it more. Some of my very first performances back in the early 1990s, I just went into the Stillwater Library in Stillwater, Okla. – I was just looking for places to perform my songs, and so I went to the Stillwater Library and asked ‘Hey, do you need performers?’ I learned about the summer reading programs, and the librarian there was very kind to try me out with her kids. After that, I started out around the state as a summer reading performer, and at the height of my career, I was performing 50 to 60 times during the summer. I've cut back on that a little bit in the past few years, but I’m working on getting out more now. When you’re working with children, you have to wear a lot of hats to do this job, and I always enjoy when I'm standing in front of a group that's performing and they're enjoying it and talking to everyone afterward.”

Harper added he was excited to hear about this year’s theme and hopes to see a lot of people at his show.

“This has always been a big interest of mine – I loved dinosaurs as a kid, and I already had a bunch of songs when the theme was announced, and I've written some new ones, so those new dinosaur songs, and I'm excited,” Harper said. “The show is going to be a lot of fun for kids and their parents to participate. I’m excited to be meeting the kids there and their families and singing. I see these shows as another opportunity to meet a bunch of new people.”

Overall, Harper said, he is looking forward to making his way back to Liberal to perform at the library this time around.

“The last time, was in Liberal, I visited the museum, and it'd be nice to see it again. I'm always encouraging kids to read and enjoy books, and the ‘The Wizard of Oz’ series is one of my favorite, and I mentioned that in a couple of my songs when I was here that time,” Harper recalled with a chuckle. “I felt like I had a good connection to that when I was there, so so I'll be excited to be going all around Liberal again.”