The Troy Savings Bank Music Hall and the Troy Chromatic Concerts merged.
Since 1894, Troy Chromatic Concerts has presented live classical music performances. In 1918 the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall became his only venue. The two entities claim to have cemented their collaboration in the continued interest of bringing “musical programming of the highest caliber for the enjoyment of local audiences”.
Jon Elbaum is executive director of Troy Savings Bank Music Hall. He says the venue is perfectly suited for the chamber orchestras, ensembles and soloists that Troy Chromatic Concerts has featured.
“We have provided administrative and marketing support to Chromatics for several years,” Elbaum said. “As an all-volunteer organization, I think they’ve faced a lot of challenges because the music industry has changed so much in the last few years. So we were able to do that. And now we We’ve kind of expanded that role to more financial management and eventually we’ll include booking as well.
Troy Chromatic Concerts Chairman of the Board, Karl Moschner, said the two bands had initial conversations about merging more than a year ago:
“Troy Chromatics has over the years, certainly more recently, over the past 20 years, taken advantage of the services of the Music Hall to an ever greater extent, in order to better serve our audience and also the artists when they visit, and taken over, takes over in the ability of the Troy Chromatics Board of Directors to provide this kind of professional service that is needed,” said Moschner. “And so, then it evolved because of COVID. Also, that’s the best solution we thought, or the board thought the Troy Chromatics board would be to merge with the Troy Music Hall .”
Elbaum says Troy Music Hall is always open to collaboration, but isn’t looking for further mergers.
In the wake of the pandemic and under the stress of inflation, Elbaum says the place is pressing.
“It’s a very difficult time, frankly,” Elbaum said. I think there’s still a certain percentage of viewers who are uncomfortable, you know, coming back to a lot of shows. And so we’re trying to assess that. certainly a lot of issues around that are of concern in terms of financial viability. We are grateful that many of our donors and sponsors have stayed with us. And, you know, we’re looking to put on a full season and we’re hopeful and optimistic that we can, that we can bring our audience back and that they’ll continue to support arts and culture here in the capital region .
Moschner calls the Music Hall a “wonderful place…”
“…which has been threatened with closure in the past for various reasons. The fire code issues and and when the bank when the original Troy Savings Bank sold to other organizations and things and the bank at the time actually didn’t take very good steps to protect building. And we too, in this sense, by joining forces, we also hope to secure the building as a quality performance venue in the future.
The next Chromatic show on Thursday October 13 will feature the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Both organizations were WAMC subscribers.
More: www.troymusichall.org
