Benjamin Klemme

Wheaton College – Associate Professor of Music and Symphony Orchestra Conductor

CSSM since 2018

DMA (University of Minnesota), MM (Cleveland Institute of Music), BMEd (University of Northern Iowa)

Dr. Benjamin Klemme, Wheaton College Associate Professor of Music and Symphony Orchestra Conductor, has served the Quad City Symphony Orchestra as Associate Conductor, Cleveland Pops and National Repertory Orchestras as Assistant Conductor, and has appeared as guest conductor of masterworks, pops, and family concerts with the Minnesota Orchestra, Vermont Symphony Orchestra, Quad City Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Pops Orchestra, National Repertory Orchestra, and Burlington Chamber Orchestra. He has led world-premiere performances at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center, and is a conductor and classical music advisor for the modern hymn writing ministry of Keith and Kristyn Getty.

A passionate music educator, Klemme’s work has involved leadership of nationally-recognized collegiate, youth orchestra, and community music school programs. He served on the music faculty at Gordon College, directed the university-wide Campus Orchestra program at the University of Minnesota, and served as Orchestra Conductor at Augsburg University. He was the founding Music Department Chair at New Mexico School for the Arts—a statewide, public, boarding high school for the arts—and has been Music Director of the Vermont Youth Orchestra Association, Santa Fe Youth Symphony Association, and Quad City Symphony Youth Ensembles. Additionally, he has served on the faculties of the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies, MacPhail Center for Music, and Csehy Summer School of Music, and has conducted honor orchestra festivals throughout New England, the Midwest, and the Southwest.
 
Klemme’s commitment to strengthening communities through music has been proven both on and off the podium. As Associate Conductor at the Quad City Symphony Orchestra, he connected community members throughout southeast Iowa and northwest Illinois with opportunities to hear, perform, and engage with orchestral music in both traditional and innovative contexts. In New Mexico, he helped bring classical music to life for elementary and middle school students as Artistic Advisor and Outreach Concert Host for the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival’s “Music In Our Schools” program. In Ohio, he co-founded the Scordatura Chamber Orchestra, a Cleveland-based ensemble designed to support classroom learning objectives in language arts, math, science, and social studies through interactive orchestral performances.
 
Klemme studied conducting with Mark Russell Smith, Kathy Saltzman Romey, Carl Topilow, Louis Lane, and Rebecca Burkhardt, and holds degrees in conducting from the University of Minnesota and Cleveland Institute of Music, and in music education from the University of Northern Iowa. He resides in Wheaton, Illinois with his wife, violinist Deborah Coltvet Klemme, and their three children, Simon, Winston, and Ingrid.