Initially hired at age 28, twenty years later Alexandria Symphony Orchestra music director Kim Allen Kluge is a Wammie award-winning conductor. The Orchestra’s professional reputation has been Kluge’s to earn, and earn it has annually since 1987. Whether he is active in the classroom or on the concert stage, Kluge’s musical goal is an audience-pleasing performance. The Alexandria Symphony Orchestra asks you to help them support Kluge’s 20th anniversary concert season.

Program quality is Kluge’s hallmark. His programming is creative, educational and powerful. Always multidimensional, mostly interdisciplinary, the Orchestra’s concert series are as rhythmic as they are melodic. This year’s concert series is a reflection of organizational growth, combining music with the motion of dance.

“Music emanates,” Kluge smiled. “Think about your heart. It has a beat, a circulatory rhythm.” I mentioned that Valentine’s Day approaches.

“As a child I couldn’t live without music,” Kluge said. “Music was the only thing that soothed me, sustained me through the storm of adolescence.”

Kluge is “a small town boy” who grew up in rural Wisconsin. His hometown had 9,000 residents, mostly “farm families” of German descent. It is why, he claims, he has “a certain affinity for classical German composers like Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Wagner and Schubert.”

Said Kluge’s biography: “Throughout Kluge’s versatile career, he has worked as concertmaster; orchestral keyboardist, wind player, organist, singer, chamber musician, recitalist, concerto soloist, chorus director, vocal coach, composer and arranger.” Kluge has composed for saxophonist Branford Marsalis, a returning ASO guest artist.

Continued Kluge’s biography: “He [was] Valedictorian of Oberlin Conservatory of Music where he served as concertmaster of the Oberlin Chamber Orchestra and received the coveted Arthur Dann Award for Outstanding Pianist.” He is committed to student education, also serving as the 2007-2008 Visiting Artist in Residence for Virginia’s Founders College, a startup institution.

“My niche is defined and it is symphonic,” added Kluge.

No twenty year affiliation is without strain or struggle. The Alexandria Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1943, incorporated in 1954, but only became a wholly professional orchestra in 1991. Kluge describes his musicians as “top tier, no longer avocational.” The ASO’s $632,000 budget reflects the change. “What Kim has done is place our Symphony on a plane few local symphonies ever reach,” said long time Symphony volunteer Jane Ring. “But his greatest accomplishment may be the involvement of the arts community, the disparate groups.”

The Alexandria Symphony Orchestra’s concert series is expanding; in response to need such as Alexandria’s open air Independence Day celebration, selected regional invitations, and local audience response. The ASO’s February 9-10 concert, Euphoria, celebrates Kluge’s interdisciplinary approach to the performing arts. A collaborative effort including BosmaDance, the concert highlights the relationship between music and dance. Some $5 Sunday tickets may still be available.

“I am like the community pied piper,” Kluge explained. “My role is to inspire the audience, and in turn the community, to live our lives artfully. Now, as I get older, I’m more keenly aware that living is the greatest art.”

“I was born with the talent to play piano and compose,” Kluge continued. “Others were born with the talent to live artfully.”

“There is something beautiful about music,” Kluge concluded. “It takes life experiences and makes them more intense.”

And how does music intensify Valentine’s Day? “Ah, with strings,” Kluge grinned. “I am very old-fashioned, sentimental, and all strings are luscious.”

This year Kluge sends his heart-felt Valentine to the Symphony Orchestra League of Alexandria. SOLA is composed of dedicated volunteers who raise funds for the Orchestra. The SOLA Ball, Rhapsody in Blue chaired by Cassie McLaughlin, is March 15 at the Pentagon City Ritz-Carlton. Ticket prices range from $175 to $2,500 for a table of ten. For more information, telephone (703) 548-7454

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“My challenge now, as a classical music guy, is how to make music rich, substantive and life sustaining,” Kluge mused. “In practice we place a high value on music, if not cognitively. There is not a single culture that doesn’t have music as a primal part of their society.”

“Do you remember the early cartoons?” Kluge enthused. “Did you not first learn classical musical from Bugs Bunny cartoons?” Warner Bros. relied on classical music to enhance its storytelling. Wagner and “Kill the Wabbit” are forever intertwined.

American children are musically literate,” Kluge said. “But – unfortunately – with No Child Left Behind music was left behind. If nothing else, music teaches children to listen to each other. At Washington’s Dunbar High School music was cleverly aligned with sports and the student results have been amazing.”

“Classical music is so mellifluous [pleasing],” Kluge said excitedly. “Wouldn’t it be great if music had the same cache as sports?”

“After 20 years I am proud,” Kluge revealed. “Alexandria is justifiably proud of its unique heritage and, likewise, I am proud of my shared history with Alexandria. I am dynamically focused, now, and want to use this 20th anniversary occasion to celebrate our future potential.”

“I love Alexandria,” the D.C.-based Kluge confessed. “It combines small town charm with educational and cultural sophistication. I have never felt compelled to leave because, when half the population changes every five years, there is always a new challenge.”

Concert tickets can be purchased on line. Visit www.alexsym.org. Tax-deductible donations are welcome including the ASO’s Concerto Foundation. Performances are held in Alexandria at the Rachel M. Schlesinger Center Hall and Arts Center. The Alexandria Symphony Orchestra reportedly is Northern Virginia’s “premiere orchestra.”

“What impressed me was Conductor Kluge standing by the exit door, shaking our hands as we left,” said Debra Sabourin. The accolades are many.

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