150 Most Interesting People

Celebrating 150 Legends: 

The Most Interesting People Who Have Graced Our Stage

Over the years, our stage has been home to countless incredible performances, and the people who have stepped onto it are just as remarkable. From groundbreaking musicians to iconic actors, visionary artists to unforgettable public figures, each individual has left a lasting mark on our venue.

In this special feature, we’re celebrating the 150 most interesting and inspiring people who have played our stage. These are the legends, the innovators, and the trailblazers who have helped shape our story, and we’re excited to share their stories with you.

Get ready to dive into the rich history of our stage and discover the fascinating individuals who have made it truly unforgettable.

Ella Fitzgerald

At the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall we are very proud of our history of incredible performers that have graced our stage.  A name that gets mention more than most in the conversation of legends whose music has echoed through our gorgeous hall is “the First Lady of Song”, the one and only Ella Fitzgerald.   

Born in 1917, Ella Fitzgerald would be known to be one of the best voices of all time with her perfect pitch, and pure tone.  Using her impeccable timing, diction, and a one of a kind improvisational ability, she became famous for her Scat style of Singing.  After gaining worldwide notoriety, she would remain one of the most famous singers of her generation with her interpretations of the great American song book.  

     Although early in her career she played almost exclusively in the state of New York, including numerous stops in the capital region, she would not perform at the music hall until 1980.  At age 62 Ella graced the stage in all black sequins for the music hall’s opening gala for the 1980 season.  Starting with a beautiful rendition of “There Will Never Be Another You”, she performed a two hour show to a completely sold out audience of 1,253 people.  The show got rave reviews, with the only noted downside being an overly aggressive photographer down front, who flash bulb was visibly irritating Fitzgerald already failing eyes.  

The show ended with a rousing version of “After You’ve Gone” to a standing ovation, adding to the music hall’s legacy, and keeping us talking about Ella long after she’s gone”. Check out some of the archives below!

Don McLean

Born and raised 150 miles south of the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall in New Rochelle, Don McLean is a Grammy winning song writer. Although he has put out over 20 albums, McLean is most notable for the 1971 smash hit “American Pie”, which became a cultural phenomenon.  At eight and a half minutes long, American Pie chronicles February 3rd 1959, dubbed “the day the music died”, when a tragic plane accident took the lives of Rock and Roll Legends Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and The Big Bopper. The song became one of the most popular songs of all time, creating its own lore of its meaning and creation.  One such lore was that song itself was written at a bar in Saratoga Springs, a fable that was debunked by McLean in a 2011 New York Times interview.

McLean played the Troy Savings Bank Music hall on May 11th 2001, to a sold out crowd.  Although the crowd seemed to enjoy the two hours of Mclean’s song and stories, the 13-minute version of American Pie that closed the night was surely a highlight for all who were in attendance.

Theodore Thomas

Thomas was a German-American violinist, conductor and orchestrator, who is considered the first renowned American orchestral conductor. Theodore received his musical education from his father, who was also a violinist and in 1845 when Thomas was 10 years old his family immigrated to America.  He would spend the most of the next 20 years touring the country playing violin, studying conducting and eventually leading orchestras.  In 1864 he founded the Theodore Thomas Orchestra, which he would lead until 1890 when he went on to found the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

An important stop for the Theordore Thomas Orchestra occurred on April 19th, 1875 for the Grand Inauguration Concert of the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall.  Thus, making Thomas and his orchestra the first in what would turn out to be a long line of amazing artists to perform on our stage over the next 150 years.  The orchestra opened with Thomas’s “Grand Opening March and National Airs” and would go on to play selections from Beethoven, Handel, Liszt, Wagner, Schumann and more.  It was an overwhelming success for the new Hall, which along with the Orchestra received rave reviews from the sold-out crowd and the Trojan reporters that were present.  They did perform “Artist’s Life” by Stauss which at the time was a new piece and might be hard for a reader today to imagine but it did not go over well with one Trojan reporter referring to it as “a wretched dancing tune and music for the delectation of the vulgar taste.”  The next night Thomas & his Orchestra would perform again using more traditional pieces including Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 6”.  

Thomas would make one more stop that we are aware of on June 25, 1884 as part of his Grand Wagner Concert tour.

Squeeze

Squeeze, the English rock band that came to prominence in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s and continue to record and tour to this day.  The group was formed by Chris Difford & Glenn Tilbrook, who are guitarists and vocalists in the band.  The majority of Squeeze’s success came in the U.K. with “Cool for Cats”, “Up the Junction”, and “Labelled with Love”, but they did have some major cross-over hits in the United States with “Tempted”, “Black Coffee in Bed”, and “Hourglass”.  Squeeze has had many different members over the years, including Paul Carrack and Jools Holland, but Difford and Tilbrook have been the mainstays since the formation of the group.  At times they were so popular in the U.K. that the duo’s songwriting was compared to Lennon & McCartney.  Squeeze has released 16 albums since 1978 with the latest “The Knowledge” being released in 2017.  Speaking to the size of their success in the late 1970s, several huge bands began their careers opening for them on tour, including Dire Straits, U2, and R.E.M.

Squeeze performed as a duo of Difford and Tilbrook at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall on 12/16/2015 in support of their album “Cradle to the Grave”.  The large crowd was treated to a diverse program of music from their new album and all of their classic hits.  Along the way they even did several question-and-answer exchanges with the audience leading to a very engaged and enthusiastic crowd.  The stage was set up to resemble a flat with two beds and a video wall center stage, they were clearly inviting you into their home for an intimate evening of music.  One local review stated “They are masters of using the structure of a pop song to create excitement without any of the bells and whistles.  They were so familiar, catchy, positive tunes that you left with a number of them in your head.” 

Stephane Grappelli

Stephane Grappelli was a French jazz violinist, best known as a founder of the Quintette du Hot Club de France with guitarist Django Reinhardt in 1934.  After a tough childhood due to the conditions of World War I, Grappelli began playing violin at the age of twelve and enrolled at the Conservatoire de Paris to learn his craft.  Grappelli would begin his career in the streets of Paris busking full time to support himself.  Grappelli bounced around and eventually was exposed to jazz which drew his attention greatly, leading him to play with more jazz-oriented musicians.  Then in 1931 he met gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt and his career took off from there.  In the beginning most of his performances were centered around London and Paris, but post World War II he would start touring the world.  On occasion he would tour still with Reinhardt, but mostly it was with his bands.  In the 1970s he would join forces with Yehudi Menuhin (another name you will see on our list of 150) to collaborate on duets mixing Menuhin’s classical training with Grappelli’s jazz.  Grappelli would continue to tour up until his death in 1997.  Grappelli left behind a large discography and his career earned him a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and induction into DownBeat Hall of Fame.

Stephane Grappelli performed at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall on three occasions; 5/18/1983, 4/29/1984 and 9/21/1996.  All three concerts drew large jazz crowds to the Music Hall for their chance to see this legend live.  On his final visit, at age 88, he drew rave reviews with one reviewer claiming that “Grappelli delivered a performance that was nothing short of wondrous … and inspiring, too.”  Grappelli ran his trio through the American popular songbook that night with some of the highlights coming via Cole Porter’s “I Get a Kick Out of You” and an ebullient encore of “Lady Be Good.”  “As vibrant, fresh and fluid as a mountain creek in springtime, Grappelli’s talented fingers and his resolutely young spirt overcame the limitations of his body” exclaimed the local review.  It was clear at his advanced age; that he was not going to disappoint any of the patrons in attendance.  

Eugenia Zukerman

Today's member of the 150 Most Interesting People who have graced our stage is Eugenia Zukerman!  Born in Cambridge Massachusetts in 1944, Eugenia Zukerman is internationally known as master of the Flute.  In her over five decades of performing, she has played with the the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Minnesota Orchestra, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Israel Chamber Orchestra, and the National Symphony Orchestra among others.  Zukerman is also an accomplished writer, authoring two books and many articles, and since 1980 has been the classical music correspondent for CBS Sunday Morning. The Troy Savings Bank Music Hall has been lucky to have had Eugenia Zukerman grace our stage numerous times.  She once famously said “playing in the Music Hall is like sailing in an extraordinary sea with perfect wind conditions”.