The Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra has announced a new music education institute named after a longtime supporter of the orchestra, Marilynn Tannenbaum. The Marilynn Tannenbaum Youth Music Education Institute will now be the umbrella for all IPO’s youth-education programs, which aim to make instrumental programs accessible to young people through a variety of experiences with professional musicians. Tannenbaum attended her first IPO concert in the 1980s at Homewood-Flossmoor High School; she routinely brought members of the orchestra into the Park Forest school where she was principal and worked to create a full youth concert for students from Chicago’s South Suburbs. Tannenbaum joined IPO’s board of directors in 1988 and was named president in 1993. She has continued to champion music and education over three decades, serving simultaneously on both the IPO board and the board of the Suburban Youth Symphony Orchestra. “IPO is dedicated to ensuring that youth education remains an integral component of IPO’s mission and operations in perpetuity,” said IPO Executive Director Christina Salerno. “The Institute will be a vehicle for IPO to attract wider community support for youth music programming, thereby increasing opportunities for all children.”
