Michael John Trotta

Biography

Born in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, Trotta studied piano, trumpet, French horn, and vocal music throughout elementary, middle school, and high school. As an undergraduate at Rowan University, he studied voice and conducting, eventually taking a BM in Music Education.

After 10 years of full-time public school teaching, he studied composition and choral conducting during his graduate work with composer Z. Randall Stroope at Rowan University where he also worked with Sir David Willcocks, Morten Lauridsen, and John Rutter.

Trotta went on to earn his doctorate in choral conducting at Louisiana State University, where he studied with Kenneth Fulton. While at LSU he met his future wife, Rachel. He taught at Rowan University, Oklahoma State University, and Virginia Wesleyan College.

In 2015, in response to increased demand for his compositions, Trotta relocated to New York City to work as a full-time freelance composer. Since that time, he has received several large scale commissions including the long awaited major work for choir and orchestra Seven Last Words'', the premiere of which he was invited to conduct at Carnegie Hall.

Style

His music is characterized by “weaving rich harmonies and memorable melodic lines into delightful tapestries of sound", “evocative text set to beautiful music," “an imaginative variety of vocal textures, with vocal lines that unfold naturally, “ and as “elegant, singable music with a strong spiritual heft." Michael J. Trotta’s Seven Last Words is a work solidly grounded in tradition, yet incorporates a musical language that, in George Gershwin’s words, “informs the thoughts and aspirations of the people and the time.”

Connections

He has worked with John Rutter, Sir David Willcocks, and Morten Lauridsen.

Composer Residencies and Keynotes

Trotta has recently been composer-in-residence at Loyola University, Georgia State University, Northwestern State University, Southeastern Louisiana State University, University of North Alabama, Virginia Wesleyan College, Graceland University, Delta State University, and with the South Carolina Music Educators Association.

His keynote “The Anatomy of Creativity: From Inspiration to Publication” explores how inspiration can inform our everyday lives.

Recordings

• Totus Tuus (2015)
• In the Bleak Midwinter (2016)
• Seven Last Words (2017)

Works

Major Works

Seven Last Words (Septem Verbum Ultima)

1. Father, Forgive Them
2. Today, You Will Be with Me
3. Behold Your Son
4. I Thirst
5. My God, Why Have You Abandoned Me?
6. Into Your Hands I Surrender My Soul
7. It is Finished

A Light Shines in the Darkness (SATB/keyboard/opt. Strings)

1. Do Not My Grave and Weep (Elizabeth Frye)
2. I Seek A Faith(Vachel Lindsay)
3. The Lord is My Shepherd(Psalm 23)
4. A Light Shines in the Darkness (Rabindranath Tagore)
5. Death Shall Be No More (John Donne)
6. I Saw a New Heaven (Revelation)
7. Even Death Itself(Virgil)
8. Deep Peace (Traditional Celtic Blessing)

For A Breath of Ecstasy – (SATB/oboe/strings)

(texts by Sara Teasdale)

1. Wealth Enough For Me
2. Peace Flows Into Me
3. Who Gave My Soul To Me
4. For You I Am Still
5. Spend All You Have On Loveliness
6. And I For You
7. Let Me Love

SATB Unaccompanied

• Ad Te Clamamus (Salve Regina)
• Adam Lay YBounden
• All is Calm, All is Bright (Joseph Mohr)
• Amazing Grace (John Newton)
• And Peace Shall Guard You (Philippians 4)
• Ave Maria
• Behold How Good (
• Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind (William Shakespeare)
• I Shall See (Psalm 23)
• Into Your Hands (from Seven Last Words)
• Prayer for Peace (Prayer of Saint Francis)
• Till All of Us Be Free
• Totus Tuus (Saint Louis de Montfort)
• Until We Meet Again (Irish Blessing)
• Veni, Veni, Emmanuel (O Come O Come Emmanuel)
• Veni Creator Spiritus (Rabunus Maurus)

SATB accompanied

• All Beautiful You Are (Song of Solomon)
• Be Still and Know
• Benediction
• Break of Day (Johne Donne)
• In the Bleak Midwinter (Christina Rossetti)
• Love Song
• Make Space for Life to Live
• Seven Last Words (Septem Verbum Ultima)
• Surely You Are In This Place
• This Present Moment (Giovanni Giocondo)
• Tu Sola Remedio (Jorge Manrique)
• Walk Forth Securely (Clare of Assisi)
• What Then (Samuel Taylor Coleridge)
• When I Sing to Make You Dance (Rabindranath Tagore)

SA-SSA-SSAA

• Break of Day (Johne Donne)
• Gloria
• Hidden in Plain Sight
• In the Bleak Midwinter (Christina Rossetti)
• Kyrie
• Make Space for Life to Live
• Veni, Veni, Emmanuel (O Come O Come Emmanuel)
• When I Sing to Make You Dance (Rabindranath Tagore)

TB-TTB-TTBB

• Break of Day
• In the Bleak Midwinter (Christina Rossetti)
• Make Space for Life to Live
• Song of Myself (Walt Whitman)
• Veni, Veni, Emmanuel (O Come O Come Emmanuel)
• 3pt mixed opt Bar.
• Love Song (Rainer Maria Rilke)
• Make Space for Life to Live
• When I Sing to Make You Dance (Rabindranath Tagore)

3pt mixed opt Bar.

• Love Song (Rainer Maria Rilke)
• Make Space for Life to Live
• When I Sing to Make You Dance (Rabindranath Tagore)