We are honored to present our 2026 TLA to Cindy and Ollie Curme for their extraordinary and enduring commitment to Terezín Music Foundation — uniting a lifetime of leadership in music, education, and philanthropy with deep, personal dedication to advancing its mission and bringing the voices of Terezín to life for future generations.

Cindy Curme has spent a lifetime at the intersection of music, education, and community — and for more than two decades, the Terezín Music Foundation has held a special place at the heart of that commitment. A classically trained pianist who earned her Master's in Piano Performance from Boston University, Cindy joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra staff in 1984, beginning a relationship with that institution that has never wavered. Elected a BSO Trustee in 2005 and ultimately named a Life Trustee, she chaired the landmark Tanglewood Forever Campaign, which surpassed its goal and raised $70 million to secure Tanglewood's future — including the Linde Center for Music and Learning, where Cindy's Café now bears her name as a warm gathering place for musicians and audiences alike.

Her devotion to music education extends to the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, where she serves as Advisory Board Chair, championing the next generation of young classical artists in residence each summer. She has also served as a trustee of Berklee College of Music for some 25 years, endowing scholarships and supporting students who might not otherwise have access to a world-class musical education.

Cindy first met TMF founder Mark Ludwig — her BSO colleague — in the 1980s, and she has been a board member and ardent champion of the foundation ever since. She served as Gala Chair in 2010 and co-chaired the gala in 2011 and 2017. She and her husband Ollie have joined four TMF Prague Festival tours, experiencing firsthand the profound pilgrimage to Terezín and the musical celebrations of the Prague Spring Festival that give the TMF mission its living, breathing heart. They have hosted TMF gatherings at their home in Weston and in the Berkshires, and they were proud to sponsor the TMF Čekovská Commission in honor of pianist Garrick Ohlsson — a musician both deeply admire.

The Curmes embody a rare combination of professional expertise, personal musicianship, and philanthropic devotion. Cindy's trajectory — from a Boston University piano student, through a dozen years on BSO staff, to the trustee who delivered a transformational campaign for Tanglewood's future — is itself a story about the power of music to shape a life. Ollie, a biochemistry graduate of Brown University and Harvard Business School alumnus,was a partner at Battery Ventures before turning his boundless curiosity to teaching at the Brandeis BOLLI and Harvard Institute for Learning in Retirement. When Garrick Ohlsson sat down at Prague's Rudolfinum in May 2013 to give the world premiere of Ľubica Čekovská's Four Movements for Piano — a TMF commission the Curmes helped make possible — it was exactly the kind of moment the Terezín Music Foundation exists to create: new music answering the silenced voices of the past, and a devoted community gathered to bear witness.