ACE Award Southwest District

Southwest District ACE Award Winner

Tammy Makram

By Kerry Johnson

Photo: Tammy Makram (recipient), Kerry Johnson (district chair)

Tammy Makram is the managing director for Memorial Auditorium in Worthington, MN and is a tireless champion for the arts in our community.

In a town the size of Worthington, it is incredibly unique to have a city auditorium that hosts an annual performance series. Tammy devotes an incredible amount of time and energy each year to creating a performance series that appeals to our uniquely diverse community. She is conscientious of the vast generational and cultural diversity in our community, and each season that she programs truly contains something for everyone.

This alone is a noble feat. However, Tammy routinely takes her role several steps further and constantly looks for opportunities to incorporate visiting performers into our public school music programs. She has helped us create workshop opportunities with groups like Tonic Sol Fa, Brule, and Cantus. Additionally, she works to ensure that performances are financially accessible for kids by offering free or reduced price tickets, and she encourages music students to get involved as volunteers at the auditorium and as pre-performance entertainers.

Tammy also facilitates the auditorium’s relationship with the school district by hosting the annual fall high school play, the annual musical production, and spring concerts for all middle and high school performance ensembles. During the process of rehearsals and performances for each of these groups, Tammy is the students’ biggest cheerleader. It is common to see social media posts from her including video clips of rehearsals simply captioned “I have the best job.”

During the pandemic, Tammy opened the auditorium for my choir students allowing us space to safely sing together. In a time that was so challenging for vocal music, she offered us a safe haven to keep our program alive. I am forever indebted to her for that.

Tammy is one in a million, and she often doesn’t get the recognition she deserves. We are so grateful for her tireless work to support music and champion the arts in SW Minnesota.