Mark and Lynn Gendleman

My relationship with the CSO started when I was 5 or 6. My musical family firmly believed in early exposure to great music. Several times a year, my mother and I — along with some of my friends and their mothers — made the hour-long drive to Chicago to be entertained and captivated by the CSO. We entered our box for the Young People’s Concerts with such anticipation and awe.

For Mark, the journey started when he signed up for a music survey course to satisfy the fine arts requirement in college. He knew at once that music was a passion worth pursuing.

We treasure our CSO memories — from music under the stars at Ravinia to watching Wynton Marsalis hold a room full of students in thrall to taking our grandchildren to their first Once Upon a Symphony program to basking in the applause that foreign audiences lavished on the CSO.

What would life be like without the Chicago Symphony Orchestra? Unimaginable! Membership in the Theodore Thomas Society allows us to rest easy. We have joined others in providing a legacy that will support the CSO long into the future.

Theodore Thomas Society members
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Theodore Thomas Society member
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Chair of the CSOA Board of Trustees & the Theodore Thomas Society
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