Linda D. Williams Trotter is in her fourteenth year as the Orchestra Director / teacher at West Bloomfield High School.  Under her tenure, the orchestra program has more than doubled in size and now boasts two orchestras. Her students began participating in the MSBOA (Michigan State Band and Orchestra) Orchestra festivals upon her arrival.  The Symphonic String Orchestra/Symphony Orchestra and Concert Orchestra has received first division ratings at both district and state levels.  Both orchestras have participated in the Music in the Parks festivals at Cedar Point and Chicago where they have received Superior and Excellent ratings.  The WBHS orchestras have also received the “Outstanding Orchestra Award” on several occasions.

 

Mrs. Trotter is a graduate of Michigan State University (BA in Music Education) and Marygrove College (MA in the Art of Teaching).  She has also taken post graduate courses from Wayne State University. She is currently the orchestra director/teacher at West Bloomfield High School, Orchard Lake Middle School, Ealy, Doherty, Green and Roosevelt Elementary Schools and is the West Bloomfield High School Music Department Curriculum Coordinator. Mrs. Trotter is on the adjunct faculty of Margrove College.

 

Prior to West Bloomfield High School, Mrs. Trotter taught orchestra, concert, jazz and marching band at Northwestern High School (Detroit, Michigan).   She was also the Interim Department Chair for the Fine Arts Department.

 

Mrs. Trotter is a conductor for the Blue Lake Music Camp and string clinician and adjudicator throughout the state of Michigan.  She has been the Music Director and Conductor for the Dearborn Youth Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit Public Schools Honors Orchestra, and has been a guest conductor for the Metropolitan Youth (Concert) Orchestra.

 

Linda’s professional memberships include the Michigan Schools Band and Orchestra Association (where she held the position of Secretary /Treasurer for the State Executive Board and Secretary for the District 4 chapter), the American String Teacher’s Association (where she holds the position of Membership Secretary for the Michigan chapter), and a member of the American Federation of Musicians.

 

In 2009, Mrs. Trotter was awarded the Michigan School Band and Orchestra District IV Orchestra Teacher of the year. Mrs. Trotter was awarded the  Michigan Schools Band and Orchestra Assocation's  2010 Orchestra Teacher of the Year.

 

 Mrs. Trotter is a member of the Warren Symphony and Grosse Pointe Symphony Orchestras and the Heavenly String Ensemble.  She has been a featured soloist with the Dearborn Festival Orchestra, Dearborn Symphony, Scandinavian Symphony, Grosse Pointe and the Detroit Metropolitan Orchestras.

 

Mrs. Trotter has performed and recorded with various artists including Aretha Franklin, Martha Reeves, Stevie Wonder, Barry White, Smokey Robinson, Fred Hammond, Richard Smallwood, Lori Morgan, and Harry Belafonte.  She has also recorded music of William Banfield, Richard Smallwood and Fred Hammond.