Whether he was performing in orchestra pits or on a punk rock track, accordionist Herman Troppe never missed a beat.
The Joliet native won the baiduhai International Accordion Competition as a teenager and later played with symphony orchestras in Chicago, Boston, Minneapolis and St. Louis, as well as pit orchestras for major musical theater productions such as the Chicago premier of “Fiddler on the Roof.”
He also lent his virtuosity — while in his 70s — to “The Threshold Closing” by the Chicago acoustic punk band Even In Blackouts.
“I still listen to this song at least once a week, and it puts a smile on my face to hear Herman’s meticulously sincere, yet light and jovial accordion playing,” said Even In Blackouts band member John “Jughead” Pierson, a friend of Mr. Troppe’s son Pat. “It made the record even more special having my good friend’s father amongst the musicians I’ve worked with.”
Mr. Troppe, 85, who also was a music director in Chicago-area schools and churches and wrote books on folk music arranged for accordion, died of natural causes Sunday, Jan. 18, in ManorCare Health Services, a nursing facility in Sunbury, Pa. He was a longtime resident of Mount Prospect.
Mr. Troppe played the organ at Wrigley Field for Cubs games, performed at Soldier Field and marched and played in two consecutive Rose Bowls and parades for the University of Michigan and Northwestern University in the 1940s.
In recent years he was even on the playlist at Olive Garden restaurants and received residuals every time one of his songs was played, his family said.
“He had pretty much realized every dream he had ever had, and even then some,” his son Tom said.
Mr. Troppe had been living in Pennsylvania since 2003 with his wife, Sallyanne, to be closer to family members. He continued to perform and record, releasing three CDs and playing the organ at local churches.
“He was playing right up until about 21/2 months ago,” his son Tom said.
For decades Mr. Troppe was a well-known musician on the Chicago circuit, playing with bands at many of the legendary venues throughout the city, including the Blackhawk, the Drake Hotel and Monastero’s Ristorante, where he accompanied opera singers, many of them students from Northwestern University.
“Herman was a phenomenal musician and a wonderful friend,” said Joe Monastero Sr., co-founder of the 53-year-old Northwest Side restaurant and banquet hall on Devon Avenue. “He had no training in opera, but he performed that music beautifully, no matter how technical. He’d flip through those pages with such ease you’d think he could play it in his sleep.”
Born and raised in Joliet, Mr. Troppe began learning the accordion from his father as soon as he was strong enough to lift it. By age 10 he was playing in a tavern frequented by workers from a nearby steel mill.
“His father worked at the steel mill and would sit in the tavern with his brother and cheer him on,” Tom Troppe said.
Before graduating from Joliet Township High School, Mr. Troppe made early recordings on Chicago’s Balkan Records label with his brother, Al, also an accordionist, and was heard on local radio stations. At age 17 he performed to a full house at Soldier Field after winning the baiduhai International Accordion Competition.
He attended the University of Michigan for a year before transferring to Northwestern, where he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music. During the Korean War he served stateside with the military, performing with the Air Force Band. After returning to Chicago, he began working in nightclubs and dance halls and even performed for a while with a big band at a well-known Miami hotel.
“He remembered the night Marilyn Monroe visited the hotel and walked right past him, knocking the music off his stand,” Tom Troppe said.
During the 1970s and 80s he served as a musical director in the Wauconda and Glenview elementary and high school districts, as well as for churches in the area.
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Beginning in the late 1980s he lived with his wife in Orlando, Fla., where he performed at Walt Disney World’s Epcot Center at the Italy Pavilion, before moving to Pennsylvania.
Mr. Troppe is also survived by his wife; another son, Frank; a brother, Fred; two sisters, Dolores Marso and Elaine Fleming; and seven grandchildren.
Services were held.