He was appointed to the position of Birmingham City Organist in 1983, succeeding Sir George Thalben-Ball.
[1] He is also noted for playing transcriptions of orchestral music, which is a tradition at St Margaret's, Westminster, where he is organist.
He has performed with conductors Sir Simon Rattle, Bernard Haitink, Riccardo Chailly and Sir Charles Mackerras, as joint soloist with performers including Evelyn Glennie, and has given recitals in the Berlin Philharmonie, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Musikverein, Vienna and Konzerthaus, Vienna and London’s Royal Festival Hall; and has given the commissioning recital on new or restored organs in places such as Cleveland’s Severance Hall (Ohio), Princeton University Chapel (New Jersey), the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, St David's Hall, Cardiff, and most recently, the Royal Albert Hall in London, following the extensive refurbishment of the organ by Mander Organs completed in 2005.
Trotter has also been invited to perform on major historic instruments such as those at St. Ouen in Rouen, St. Bavo’s in Haarlem (Netherlands), Weingarten Abbey in Germany and Woolsey Hall at Yale University and he appears at the festivals of Salzburg, Berlin, Vienna, Edinburgh and London’s BBC Proms.
He has released two DVDs on Regent: The Town Hall Tradition (REGDVD001 – September 2011), recorded on the organ of Town Hall, Birmingham, and A Shropshire Idyll (REGDVD002 – March 2014), released to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Snetzler organ in St Laurence's Church, Ludlow.