John William Trotter became Chicago a cappella’s second Artistic Director in 2020, having previously served the ensemble as Principal Music Director and Guest Music Director starting in 2013. A rapidly rising conductor on today’s concert music stage, his work from the podium has been recognized internationally through numerous prizes, grants, and guest conducting invitations. To date, he has conducted more than a dozen professional orchestras and choirs in seven countries. Trotter earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Conducting from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor). He was awarded honors from the American Choral Directors Association and the Canada Council for the Arts before joining the Vancouver Chamber Choir, Canada’s most active professional choir, as a full-time conductor in 2009. Over three seasons, he led the ensemble in more than twenty-five performances throughout Canada, Taiwan, and Japan. His performance of the Vivaldi Magnificat was hailed by the Vancouver Sun as “a radiant performance of this work that overstated nothing and brought out all of its freshness and charm.” In 2011, his season-opening concert with the ensemble was broadcast nationally by CBC Radio. 

In the course of his work with the professional ensemble, Trotter became recognized for establishing and enhancing education, outreach, and engagement programs for composers, conductors, singers, and audiences. In 2012, he was appointed to the Wheaton College Conservatory of Music as Assistant Professor, where he teaches conducting and leads the Wheaton College Concert Choir, the Conservatory’s select SATB ensemble. 

Trotter’s current musical activities range from traditional choral/orchestral repertoire, new music, jazz, and film score recording to work as a consultant, clinician, writer, speaker, composer/arranger, and leader of improvisation workshops.