Reviews for composer, Michael John Trotta. See what critics are saying about the music:

“tender harmonies and a palette of glowing vocal and instrumental colors . . . rapturous ” – Gramophone

“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.’” – Robert Rawlins – The Choral Scholar

“weaves rich harmonies and memorable melodic lines into delightful tapestries of sound” Barnaby Hughes – Stage and Cinema

“inspired and deeply stirring, and the entire listening experience is a rich and vivid one” Carla Maria Verdino-Süllwold – Fanfare Magazine

“a fascinating, infectious setting . . . effectively carries out that dialogue between the ancient Latin chant and the modern listener” – Choral Journal

“elegant, singable music with a strong spiritual heft.” Brian Morton – Choir and Organ Magazine

“Michael John Trotta’s choral music is a lineal descendant of Aaron Copland’s. Trotta writes elegant, singable music with a strong spiritual heft. Lovely singing by the Chorale, with that nice blending of male and female forces only American forces seem to manage with such simplicity.” – Choir and Organ Magazine

“There is something remarkably reassuring about the warmth of Michael John Trotta’s devotional music. The choir (Mystical Voices Chorale) is faultless, perfectly balanced, and evidently completely behind the sentiments expressed here. ” – Fanfare Magazine

“New settings with steady pacing display careful craftsmanship and a penchant for sweet, gentle mood painting, engendering reflection and transcendence.” – Artsong Update

“Trotta creates tonal, textured, richly colored tapestries of sound and emotion. His own considerable experience as a choral conductor makes his writing for the voice grateful, and the sound he elicits from the 30-plus singers is a lush, full, blended one that nonetheless shapes the harmonies with great clarity. However, it is the a cappella compositions on the recording that are some of Trotta’s most moving because they showcase his intimate knowledge of the human voice and his sensitivity to the capabilities of a choral ensemble. Veni Creator Spiritus is a haunting combination of modern tonalities with chant.” – Fanfare Magazine

“Response to the concert and recording have also been hugely positive. Choral Scholar called it “a significant achievement, a worthy participant in the choral tradition, and a welcome contribution to the literature,” while Fanfare magazine called it “a monumental, poignant retelling. . .The seven-movement work has a sweep and grandeur at the same time that it achieves a quiet, deeply emotional intimacy. As in all of Trotta’s choral writing, there is a strong sense of archietecture combined with drama, an arresting command of thematic material and melody, and a haunting layer of mysticism that etches the work into memory.” – Scene 4

“Veni, Veni Emmanuel is a fascinating, infectious setting… effectively carries out that dialogue between the ancient Latin chant and the modern listener. The summer may as well be Advent and Christmas for the church musician, and Michael John Trotta’s Veni, Veni Emmanuel explodes on the listener with modern twenty-first- century suspended harmonies and hip-hop inspired percussion rhythms to create a fascinating, infectious setting for these ancient and beloved Advent antiphons.” – Choral Journal

In his famous Poetics of Music of 1939, Stravinsky observes, “A real tradition is not the relic of a past that is irretrievably gone; it is a living force that animates and informs the present.” 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. The dynamic interplay of time-honored musical gestures with present-day sonorities is present at the outset of the piece.” – Choral Scholar

“The American composer Michael John Trotta has concentrated on choral music for most of his career. The newest disc devoted to his works offers both secular and sacred fare. Its title, ‘For a Breath of Ecstasy,’ is a line from one of the seven Sara Teasdale poems Trotta has set for choir, oboe and string quartet. The poems come from an extensive Teasdale collection, Love Songs, that won her the first Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in 1918.

The poems in Trotta’s cycle, commissioned to mark the Teasdale-Pulitzer centennial, are reflections by a woman grateful for the affection she has received. The lyrical verses prompted the composer to summon equally lyrical musical responses, with appealing melodic lines, tender harmonies and a palette of glowing vocal and instrumental colors.

Trotta binds the cycle together with a beguiling theme, first played by the oboe, that leads to all manner of lovely choral lines. The ‘ecstasy’ soars in the fifth song, ‘Spend all you have on loveliness’, a poignant and apt thought, especially for a poet who was called ‘first, last and always a singer’ in an early review of Love Songs. The disc is rounded out by three sacred pieces for unaccompanied choir that show Trotta in his rapturous element, whether the texts are English or Latin.

The Northwestern State University Chamber Choir, from Louisiana, perform all of the works with fine sense of ensemble and words under the direction of Nicholaus B Cummins.” – Gramophone

“weaves rich harmonies and memorable melodic lines into delightful tapestries of sound” – Stage and Cinema

“captures the allegorical relationship between the spiritual and temporal” – Spectrum Music

“a beautiful work with evocative text set to beautiful music” – Reprise

“legato vocal lines that unfold to reveal a subtle interplay between voices, a wistful quality to this lyrical composition” – Sounding Board

“a beautiful, fittingly peaceful opening theme, the words are set clearly, but with an imaginative variety of vocal textures, with vocal lines that unfold naturally, emulating flowing chant lines ” – Pastoral Music

“an outstanding example” – Choralnet

“editor’s choice” – JW Pepper

“a fresh new take” – Choral Director Magazine