Today we’d like to introduce you to Samuel Grace.
Hi Samuel, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
In 2014, I was finishing up a Choral Conducting degree at the University of Minnesota, and I was looking for some extra work. I was riding the bus through the city, daydreaming a bit, and was thinking about how many businesses use an abbreviation for Minneapolis (MPLS) in their business names. I had the idea that MPLS (pronounced “impulse”) would be a good name for a dance club in town. I shared the idea on Facebook, and a friend suggested that I instead start a choir with that name.
We founded MPLS (imPulse) in 2014 with the idea of completely reimagining the typical choral experience. We looked at models of choruses around us. Most met weekly. Most performed sacred literature. Most performed in sacred spaces. Most, if not all, wore formal dress attire when performing. Few were offering paid work for working artists. Our model experimented with flipping these ideas around. We became a project-based new music ensemble that performs in unique spaces.
We’ve performed and partnered with dozens of organizations over the past 9 seasons:
- American Swedish Institute
- Flat Earth Brewing
- Padilla CRT Atrium
- Olson Middle School Swimming Pool (Bloomington, MN)
- Capri Theatre
- Chankaska Winery
- In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre
- Powderhorn Park (Minneapolis)
- Kitchen Window (commercial kitchen)
- Como Planetarium
- Urban Growler Brewing Company
- Wellstone Center (St. Paul)
- AfterTime (Symphonic Metal Band)
- Orpheum Theater: National Geographic Live
- ComMUSICation
- Corpse Reviver
- Jillian Rae
- The Bearded Company among many others.
Our goal as an organization is to challenge the perception of choral music—to bring in new lovers of the choral art who thought it only belonged in a church or high school gym. Working with our partners and performance venues has been thrilling. We simply ask the question: what would happen if we added choral music to X? A recent example is our partnership with The Bearded Company improv comedy troupe. We worked with their team and a composer to commission what we think is the first “improvised choir,” that performed both a Murder Mystery event and an improvised space adventure.
Audiences love our programs, not only because they are fun and creative, but because the singers sound great and are clearly singing because they love this ensemble. Cultivating the singer’s experience is especially important. The singers are together for such a limited time (about 2 weeks). We build in a lot of social time and provide meals and special events so that they can build relationships with one another. After all, singers perform better when they know and trust one another.
We are currently a semi-professional ensemble, meaning that we pay a core set of singers for their work. We identify as a new music ensemble. We perform new choral music exclusively—nearly every piece we have performed is represented by a living composer.
I’d be happy to share more over the phone if requested!
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I don’t think starting any business is a smooth road.
The greatest challenges at the beginning were finding artistic partners and venues to perform in. We were really excited about the creative use of space, and sometimes, approaching venues with the idea of hosting a choral performance was met with a great deal of skepticism. What we learned over time was to build better, ongoing relationships with the people and businesses we partner with.
COVID has also been a struggle. The pandemic essentially halted in-person choral singing—especially for live in-person audiences. As the world seeks to return to some version of normal, audiences are much less predictable. People are generally waiting until the last minute or day-of to purchase tickets, and that can be hard on smaller nonprofits like ours.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
We are most proud of being one of few choral ensembles in the Twin Cities that specializes solely in performing new music. We pride ourselves in being versatile and flexible—we get frequent requests to perform at weddings, special events, and with rock bands. We love the challenge of bringing choral music to any space.
A creative example was our performance at Olson Middle School, where we performed with Bloomington middle school students on their pool deck, which offered an acoustic that many of their students hadn’t considered for singing in the past. People love us because we are bold, adventurous, and sincerely joyful about the music we perform and where we perform it.
How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
By reaching out to us! We’re always open to new project ideas. I would encourage anyone interested in learning more about what we do, visit our website or reach out to me directly.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.mplsimpulse.org
- Instagram: @mplsimpulse
- Facebook: facebook.com/mplsimpulse
- Twitter: @mplsimpulse
Image Credits
#1 & 2: Mark Fierst
#5: Bruce Silcox
#6 & 7: Annika Parks
