Get To Know Grace Notes

Grace Notes Classical Trio is made up of Karsten Jensen, Brianna Jensen, and Sandy Larson. They have been in the industry for about 13 years.

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The group is a family ensemble. Sandy is the mother of Brianna and Karsten. In addition to a standard classical music repertoire, Grace Notes also play pop music and enjoy arranging popular or other music. “If we don’t have a song in our repertoire that you would like, we are happy to purchase it and/or arrange it for our instrumentation,” says Karsten.

A Musical Background

They have been playing music together since Brianna and Karsten first learned to play, and have been playing professionally as Grace Notes since 2003. “Because we are family and have played music together for many years, we bring a special element to your wedding or event, and our communication musically is enhanced,” explains Karsten.

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All three members studied music in college and took private music lessons for many years. Outside of Grace Notes, Karsten works on staff at the Minnesota Orchestra and enjoys running, yoga, reading and watching movies. Brianna is a second-grade teacher at a Spanish Immersion school and enjoys salsa dancing, yoga, running and building fun learning tools for her classroom. Sandy is a Technology Integration Specialist at an elementary school and enjoys cooking, gardening, and playing violin in the Heartland Symphony Orchestra. They often play music together as a full family with Dad/spouse Jerry, who is a guitarist and composer in his free time.

When asked why they picked their career path, Karsten explained;

We love playing music, especially as a family. There’s something special about reading each other’s body language (and almost reading each other’s minds!) when we perform together. We also enjoy helping someone else have the best wedding or event possible – we love being a part of what made an event meaningful.

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Fun Facts About the Group

When Grace Notes began playing music professionally in 2003, Brianna and Karsten were teenagers (ages 13 and 15). “When we walked into gigs, we would get anxious looks because it’s not typical for students that young to be professional musicians,” says Karsten. Brianna started piano at the age of 3, and Karsten started flute at the age of 5. “Sometimes we would get comments after the gig, like ‘I was worried at first because you looked so young, but I was pleasantly surprised by your performance quality!’” says Karsten.

Wedding Advice

When asked about their best advice for event planning, they advised that people should always have an indoor rain plan if your wedding is outdoors. Plan your wedding well in advance, and feel free to plan down to the very last detail, but on the day of your wedding, just enjoy it. Things never go 100% perfectly as planned, and that’s part of the joy of life.

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Experience with Pine Peaks

“I love that Pine Peaks has a sense of connectedness with us, different vendors in the Brainerd Lakes Area, and guests or couples planning their weddings at Pine Peaks. Pine Peaks engages with all parties involved, and they work hard to make each event they host a success,” says Karsten.

The most memorable wedding that the group performed at took place this summer:

We played at a beautiful outdoor wedding, but unfortunately, it was pouring rain before the ceremony. The wedding was delayed a little bit and the rain let up. Groomsmen were running around and wiping rainwater off the white chairs, and the ceremony started. It was a beautiful wedding, but then it started to sprinkle again during the vows! The groomsmen held white umbrellas for the bride and bridesmaids – it was very cute and chivalrous. A memorable wedding for sure. It also happened to be the friend of a friend’s wedding, so that made it special too.

You can contact Grace Notes Classical Trio on their website at http://grace-notes.us/, or you can connect with them on Facebook and Twitter.

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