The Central Lakes College music department offers 11 different musical ensembles. From wind symphony to string orchestra, they aren’t open to just students – the whole community can participate as well.

Jonathan Laflamme, a music instructor at CLC, created the jazz ensemble first, but things began to balloon from there.

It was important to keep the ensembles open to all to create an environment where people from different backgrounds, age groups, and skill levels had to work together to achieve a common goal. Laflamme believes it’s the want to persevere that creates great music.

His biggest takeaways for the program are that people “feel that their individual intrinsic value is appreciated,” and there is “enough challenge where they accomplish something that is at a higher, or further level than they thought they were going to be able to in the first place.”

The ensembles perform regularly in the Brainerd Lakes area and even tour internationally at the end of the school year for those who don’t mind the travel.

By — Charlie Yaeger