Dorf Kapelle to be featured on Letterman By Steve Arveson For The News-Chronicle From New York, the greatest city in the world, it's The Late Show with the Dorf Kapelle Village Band. David Ehren has played trumpet with dozens of bands in front of thousands of audience members, but no gig will ever be as big as tonight, when, Ehren and the Dorf Kapelle Village Band are scheduled to appear on "The Late Show with David Letterman." The program airs locally at 10:35 p.m. weeknights on WFRV-TV Channel 5. The show is one of three television appearances for the Dorf Kapelle Village Band this week. They were also featured on Tuesday's early-morning WFRV news broadcast as well as another national appearance Thursday morning on the "Fox and Friends" morning news broadcast from New York, the day after the Letterman appearance, on Fox News Channel. The group will take off from Green Bay's Austin Straubel Airport early this morning to go to New York for a large Octoberfest celebration. A few weeks ago, the Dorf Kapelle was notified the Great Lakes Kraut Company, in conjunction with the Brooklyn Brewing Company, was putting on an Octoberfest celebration highlighting the foods and beers of Octoberfest. "They wanted some ethnic background music to make it more authentic. We've had offers like this before and passed it up," Ehren, a trumpet player with the band, said. "We never really thought about this until a couple of weeks later when Ernie (Broeniman, the group's director) was contacted again and was told they were definitely interested and asked if we could do something like this." The Dorf Kapelle is an ethnic band that plays various festivals, private gatherings and is a mainstay at Denmark's All Saints Church picnics each June. "The music we're doing with the Dorf Kapelle is basically European ethnic music," Ehren of Luxemburg said. "It's from Germany, primarily from the Bavarian districts but we have a few marches in the library from Russia. It's not just German. If we find a good piece of music we grab it and perform it." Ehren began playing professionally as a junior in high school. After studying business in college, he shifted his focus to music and began traveling with the Rainbow Valley Dutchmen during his senior year. After about eight years on the road, he took a three-year hiatus from playing before joining a Manitowoc-based band for a decade. He has also played with the Green Bay Symphony and currently plays eight gigs each year with the Green Bay Packers' band. The retired trumpeter served 31 years as band director at Luxemburg-Casco High School and four years with the Wrightstown district. Though the Dorf Kapelle is made up of 17 members headed by Ernie Broeniman, only 10 members, mostly from the brass section will make the New York trip. As a full band, the Dorf Kapelle will play about 40 shows this year. In addition, Ehren fills in with several other local bands. "I'm playing a whole lot more now than I ever thought I was going to," Ehren said.