“For me, music is a poetic reading of time, where I work within time to create the opportunity for expressiveness, beauty, and poetic engagement, both within and between individuals.”
Trained in the United States and Europe, Kim Diehnelt established her craft as conductor in both Finland and Switzerland, leading Baltic, Russian, and European ensembles. In Helsinki, Kim founded the Helsinki Camerata, a group dedicated to a chamber music approach to orchestral performance. Her pacing and style reflect an inherent understanding of rhetoric and dramatic flow, receiving praise for her "unusual talent to communicate through the orchestra to her audience."
Currently, Kim is the Music Director of BOWS (the Burlington Orchestra Workshop for Strings) and Conductor of the Burlington Civic Symphony.
Diehnelt’s conducting activities have included Music Director positions with the Helsinki Camerata, Helsinki Community College Orchestra, Southwest Minnesota Orchestra, South Loop Symphony, Chicago Reading Orchestra, and the Northwest Symphony Orchestra in the greater Chicago area.
Performances as Guest Conductor include: Community String Orchestra of the Adirondacks (Lake Placid, NY), Lake Forest Civic Orchestra (IL), Orquestra Sinfónica de Aguascalientes (Mexico), South Bohemian Chamber Orchestra (Czech Republic), Seinäjoki Symphony Orchestra (Finland), Waukegan Symphony Orchestra (IL), Rose City Chamber Orchestra (OR), Civic Orchestra (Chicago, IL), VanderCook College of Music Orchestra (Chicago, IL) and Aspen Music Festival.
As an opera and ballet conductor, Kim has led staged productions by Chicago Folks Operetta, American Chamber Opera, Main Street Opera (IL), Ensemble Warhol (Boston, MA), American Opera Group, Opera Millennium (MN), and Ragamala Music and Dance Theater (MN).
Other artistic activities have included: Artistic Director of the Sounds of the South Loop in Chicago, and Director of Chamber Music at the Helsinki University.
Kim Diehnelt’s primary conducting teachers have been Walter Hügler (Biel, Switzerland), and Atso Almila (Helsinki, Finland). She also received training at the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen; the Biel Academy, Switzerland; and the Sibelius Academy and Helsinki Conservatory in Finland.
Kim has been composing since 2011 when, after decades on the conductor's podium, she "suddenly had something to say." Her style is best described as a “Nordic Palestrina” as her works possess a lyrical, vocal quality with an attention to beauty and the sense of an unfolding story. Kim was named the KISMET Foundation’s 2018 Artist-in-Residence and created the nature-inspired work Yarmouth Time for Violin and Cello which appears on the Trio Casals album "Moto Finale" released in December 2021. The Filharmonie Brno performance of Striadica: A Symphonic Passage was released on the album "Legends and Light, Vol. 2" in January 2022. "With Courage, Dear Heart"was released on the SYMPHONIC CHRONICLES VOL V album in 2025, performed by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Miran Vaupotić conductor.
- Release of the new string trio arrangements for Violin, Viola, and Cello in 2 volumes. "Wednesday Morning Trios" Book 1 and Book 2
- With Courage, Dear Heart release by Navona Records. Performed by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Details.
- Named as the new Music Director of the Burlington Civic Symphony. Details
- "Memento for Clarinet, Horn, and 4-Part Cello Choir" receives its world premiere as part of the Kanack School of Musical Artistry's Cello Scholarship Fundraiser. April 26, 2025, 6:15 pm. at the Artisan Church, Rochester, NY. More about the Kanack School.
- Guest Conductor for the Burlington Civic Symphony, March 8, 2025. Details
- Green Mountain Mahler Festival. Conducting Edward Elgar's Symphony No. 1. November 18, 2024. Details
- "A Garden Walk" and "By the Old Pond" for Tenor Recorder and Cello. Completed in the summer of 2024, and entered into the American Recorder Society's New Music for Recorder Library. Details
- "Adirondack Spring" and "Song of Well-Wishes" both get a reading at the American String Teachers Association's 2024 National Conference as part of their New Music Reading Sessions. March 22 & 23, 2024, Louisville, KY. Details.
- "At the Edge of Dawn" a new work for Trumpet and String Orchestra for trumpet player Alisa Crueger-Cain, completed Jannuary 2024.
- Holiday orchestral track released on by Navona Records on November 10, 2023. And here it is! Dashing Vol. 4!
- Trio Casals performance of “Yarmouth Time” at Carnegie Hall, May 5, 2023. Details.
- Music Director of the Burlington Civic Symphony.
- Chamber Music Coach, July 2024. Annual one-week Chamber Music camp in Burlington, VT
- Conductor of the Burlington Orchestra Workshop for Strings, aka BOWS. Burlington, VT.