Students are excited as they prepare for their November concert with guest conductor Dr. Benjamin Klemme.

Klemme said he is enthusiastic to be collaborating with students in their upcoming concert.

“One of the things I’m really excited about is St. Louis Park students coming and performing alongside the musicians from Augsburg College orchestra,” Klemme said.

Klemme said he enjoys his conducting job and working on a variety of concerts.

“I get to live this extraordinary life as a conductor. I live in Iowa and I work for this professional orchestra called the Quad City Symphony Orchestra,” Klemme said. “I’m the associate conductor, so I get to conduct the POPS concerts, the family concerts and cover conduct in case our director gets sick and I have to jump in at the last minute. It’s a really great job.”

Orchestra teacher Miriam Edgar said Klemme contacted the Park orchestra asking to  co-produce a concert for November.

“Dr. Klemme is the new director now at Augsburg and he thought it would be really cool to reach out and collaborate,” Edgar said.

Klemme said this is not his first time playing with the Park orchestra. Klemme added that he is excited to be performing with Park again.

“This is my second time I get to visit St. Louis Park. I came here two years ago to work with the SLP orchestras for the day,” Klemme said. “They wrote me this awesome thank you card that I still have and there’s just a such a fantastic enthusiasm and warm culture for music-making in SLP. I’m just thrilled to come back.”

Edgar said Klemme is great to work with, and because of his past experience he is able to help the orchestra finalize its pieces.

“First of all he’s really fun to work with, he just brings a lot of light to the music and also because he has so many credentials and he can notice things that may be missed,” Edgar said

According to Edgar, the performance is in mid-November and the students will take the day to rehearse with  Klemme.

“We’re performing at Augsburg and Halverson Chapel (and) we’re performing on Nov. 12 at 4:30,” Edgar said. “We’re going to have the whole day with both Dr. Klemme in rehearsal but also the Augsburg music faculty and we’re actually giving a recital. So it’ll just be a cool way to connect the two orchestras and a great learning experience for us.”