Today we’d like to introduce you to 10th Wave. Them and their team share their story with us below:
10th Wave was formed in December 2017 by four founding members: Bjorn & Weily Grina-Shay, Eri Isomura, and Ashley Ng. We are a unique collective music ensemble whose core members include the following: percussion, strings, clarinet, piano, and vocals.
Our initial concept was simply to carve a space for playing new music from around the year 1950 to the present day here in the Twin Cities – we have been fortunate enough to grow and evolve our mission to focus on performing music by living and local composers and composers of color who have been historically excluded from the Western Classical music and have since performed in various outdoor summer festivals (Stone Arch Bridge Festival, Highland Park), breweries and coffee shops (Boom Island, La Dona Cerveceria, Black Dog Cafe), schools as part of MPR Class Notes Artists, traditional concert hall spaces (Studio Z, Antonello Hall, Urness Hall, and Bjorling Concert Hall), and backyard house concerts throughout MN.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
There have been quite a few challenges in starting a chamber ensemble. 10th Wave is currently a 501(c)3 non profit organization. Classical musicians are not usually trained in the business side of things such as marketing, taxes, fundraising, or maintaining a board so there was a huge learning curve in forming our group into what it is today.
10th Wave is unique in that our organization is musician-led. Many of our musicians have had to learn skills quickly while performing and keeping our group running. It felt a lot like building a plane and flying it at the same time. We are still learning to balance running a nonprofit while performing at the highest artistic level we can.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
10th Wave is invested in bringing engaging and interdisciplinary classical new music to performance spaces both inside and outside of the normative setting. Through our concerts, we strive to build a community within our audiences that breaks down the barriers of social class, race, and ethnicity to be accessible for all who come to listen.
Every concert 10th Wave presents is free and open to the public, and we consciously pick locations that draw a more diverse audience than a typical concert hall. Since our organization is led primarily by people that are in the BIPOC and/or LGBTQIA2+ community, we have a strong mission to ensure most of the music performed is written by historically underrepresented people in the community.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you.
Roman philosopher, Seneca, once quoted, “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”
In the same way, the 10th Wave has always worked hard to make sure we are prepared to excel in the opportunities we are given.
In the years since its founding, 10th Wave has been awarded grants from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council and the Minnesota State Arts Board to put on concerts that fulfill the mission of our group. 10th Wave has also received an overwhelming amount of support from the community such as composers, other musicians, Zeitgeist New Music Ensemble, New Leaders Council – Twin Cities, generous donors, and a dedicated Board of Directors.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.10thwave.org/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/10thwavemusic/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/10thwavemusic/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@10thwavemusic66
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/10th-wave-music
Image Credits
Cuppa Joe Photography
