Photograph courtesy Valfred Mendoza
Michael Trotter Jr. loved the TV drama Black Lightning, which ran on the CW network from 2018 to 2021. The show followed the story of a school principal who becomes a superhero with a police detective by the name of Bill Henderson by his side. So when the actor who played Henderson reached out to Trotter earlier this year, it was quite a shock.
“To be honest, I was confused,” says Trotter, one half of the wildly popular country duo The War and Treaty. “I was just super excited that the actor knew my name. But then I looked and realized he’s actually a conductor.”
Indeed, Damon Gupton not only works as an actor but also serves as principal guest conductor of the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, and he’ll bring The War and Treaty and the Pops together on September 6 at Music Hall.
“We take music for granted,” says Trotter, who recently released the single “Feels Like Home” with bandmate Tanya Trotter, his wife of 14 years. “Music controls everything in our lives and our existence. There’s a rhythm to everything. Our heartbeat is a rhythm. And rhythm creates melody, and melody creates lyrics, and lyrics create songs, and songs creates masterpieces, and masterpieces create longevity, and longevity creates eternity.”
He draws in a deep breath. “I cannot wait for everyone to check out this particular program we’ve put together. It’s going to be glorious.”
Glorious seems to be the best adjective for the Pops show as well as for the sheer sound that emerges when The War and Treaty sing together. Launching the musical duo just over a decade ago, they initially tipped their musical toes into R&B but truly found a home within the country music scene. Grammy nominees for Best New Artist, the Trotters are quick to describe their love for classical music.
“I grew up listening to that kind of music,” says Tanya, who received a vocal scholarship for classical music from the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, D.C. “I was always familiar with orchestras, but the amazing part of all this is that I’m doing it with my husband and the music comes out of his head.”
Tanya says the opportunity to combine their music with classical instrumentation feels somewhat surreal. “When I hear this music, it brings me to tears because I remember Michael just playing or just singing these songs to me where the strings were just his voice,” she says. “To have these instruments take on the sound I heard coming out of his mouth, laying in the bed at three o’clock in the morning, is absolutely incredible.”
And while you might assume that a performance such as this requires much preparation and practice, Michael says rehearsal time has been limited. “The orchestra is locked tight, and their job is to just read those charts and to play what’s in front of them,” says Michael, who also joined creative forces with the Nashville Symphony earlier this year. “And then our band is locked tight. But the magic happens during soundcheck, when we link up together. It’s powerful.”
As powerful as those moments are for the audience, they may be even more powerful for those assembled onstage. “You’re taking on the energy from the crowd and you’re taking on your own, but then you have a 50-piece band behind you with more energy that you’ve to take on,” says Tanya. “It’s a spiritual experience. None of us have been in Heaven, but I imagine it’s going to be like that with that music behind you and the beauty of the sound.”
Even more mind-blowing is that it’s their music filling the space.
Michael says he created an intro piece specifically for the symphony shows that’s been elevated to a new heights with the orchestral backing. “When I heard what the arranger, Don Hart, did with the rest of the instruments, it was so insane,” he says. “I was actually sobbing uncontrollably because this is a dream come true. I just can’t wait for y’all to see it and to hear us with it.”
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