Kim Diehnelt established her craft as conductor and artistic coach in Finland and Switzerland where she worked with the South Bohemian Chamber Orchestra, and Russian and Baltic ensembles. In Helsinki, Ms. Diehnelt founded the Helsinki Camerata, a group dedicated to a chamber music approach to orchestral performance. She was Director of Chamber Music at the Musicology Department of Helsinki University and Music Director of the Helsinki Community College Orchestra. Kim is grateful for the mentoring she received from the late Sergiu Commissiona and János Fürst.

In the United States, Ms. Diehnelt was Music Director of Opera Millennium (MN) where she led the premiere production of Margorie Rusche's dance opera Goddess Songs. Kim has been Music Director of the Southwest Minnesota Orchestra and Lakeside Pride Orchestra (IL). From 2001-2006, Kim served as Assistant Conductor of the Symphony of Oak Park and River Forest (IL) led by Music Director Jay Friedman. Ms. Diehnelt’s tenure culminated with the orchestra’s 75th Anniversary Concert, where she conducted a striking performance of Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony and the dramatic premiere of Symphonic Journal: Ambush from Ten Sides by Angel Lam. Kim is currently the Music Director of the South Loop Symphony, Chicago, IL.

In May 2005, Ms Diehnelt accepted the post of Conductor of the Chicago Reading Orchestra. During the next two years Kim conducted the CRO in over 100 works, including the symphonic repertoire of Bruckner, Debussy, Elgar, Ravel, and Strauss, readings of contemporary pieces, and Mahler’s symphonies, Das Lied von der Erde, and Kindertotenlieder. Ms. Diehnelt presented the works of contemporary award-winning composers in public readings with the CRO: Memories of My Previous Lives by Angel Lam, the two-time winner of the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award, and Dance Aurora by Bjorn Berkhout, 2006 winner of the Gustav Mahler City of Klagenfurt Composition Prize.

Kim has been Guest Conductor of the Orquestra Sinfónica de Aguascalientes (Mexico), Waukegan Symphony Orchestra (IL), Marshall Area Youth Orchestra (MN), Suburban Youth Symphony Orchestra (IL), and the VanderCook College of Music Orchestra (Chicago, IL). June 2011 Kim led Ensemble Warhol (Boston, MA) in premiere performances of composer Mark Warhol’s production Memories and Fantasies, featuring the ballet La grenouille à grande bouche and the ballet from his opera Jeanne's Fantasy. Ms. Diehnelt was Guest Conductor for the American Opera Group's 2006 production of Die Fledermaus (Oak Park, IL). In 2002, Kim conducted at the Aspen Music Festival.

Ms. Diehnelt is an authority on the music of Edward Elgar. The Elgar Society in England has sponsored Kim’s conducting of Elgar’s Symphony No. 1, the tone-poem In the South, and the Cockaigne Overture. Kim regularly speaks on Elgar: His story, his music, coaches performers on Elgar's works, and sponsors recitals and live radio broadcasts of Elgar's chamber music. In 2010, Ms. Diehnelt was asked to be a founding member of the Elgar Society - North America Branch; she presented Podium Time with Elgar at the inaugural conference in March, 2010.

Maestra Kim is also a discerning essayist and public speaker. She regularly presents the Classical Connoisseur, a wine-tasting approach to music, and is an experienced commentator on classical radio.

Ms. Diehnelt’s vast repertoire covers the works of European and Nordic composers. Kim has worked with contemporary American composers Bjorn Berkhout, Angel Lam, Libby Larsen, Stephen Paulus, Roberto Sierra, and Mark Warhol. Ms. Diehnelt’s pacing and style reflect an inherent understanding of rhetoric and dramatic flow. She has been praised for her “unusual talent to communicate through the orchestra to her audience” and “create magic.”