Detroit, (February 27, 2025) – The Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) and Music Director Jader Bignamini are pleased to announce the appointment of Gracie Potter as Principal Trombone following a successful audition last November. Potter will begin her role at the Pictures at an Exhibition concerts on March 6–8, conducted by Principal Guest Conductor Tabita Berglund at Orchestra Hall.
Potter previously served as Acting Principal Trombone of the Richmond Symphony. She has performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, and the London Symphony Orchestra.
As a soloist, she has performed with the Whittier Regional Symphony and will be a guest artist at this year’s American Trombone Workshop and the Interlochen Low Brass Intensive. Potter won both the Frank Smith and Robert Marsteller Competitions through the International Trombone Festival. She won the Ladies Musical Club of Seattle's Frances Walton Competition, where she performed live on KING-FM Radio and toured the state of Washington with her twin brother, Caden Potter, accompanying her. While attending Music Academy in Santa Barbara, Potter won the Keston MAX Competition, sending her to London for a 10-day residency with the London Symphony Orchestra. She won Aspen’s Concerto Competition and performed with the Aspen Conducting Academy Orchestra, and spent the last two summers as a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center.
Potter was born in Arizona and attended the Colburn School, graduating with her bachelor’s degree in Trombone Performance, where she studied with David Rejano.
About the DSO
The acclaimed Detroit Symphony Orchestra is known for trailblazing performances, collaborations with the world’s foremost musical artists, and a deep connection to its city. Led by Music Director Jader Bignamini since 2020, the DSO makes its home at historic Orchestra Hall within the Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Music Center, offering a robust performance schedule that features classical, pops, jazz, and family concerts, plus community performances. Enrico Lopez-Yañez was named Principal Pops Conductor in 2023, trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard serves as the orchestra’s Fred A. Erb Jazz Creative Director Chair, and Tabita Berglund began her tenure as Principal Guest Conductor in the 2024–25 season. A dedication to broadcast innovation and technology began in 1922, when the DSO became the first orchestra in the world to present a live radio broadcast of a concert and continues today with the groundbreaking Live from Orchestra Hall series of free webcasts.
The DSO’s distinguished history of recordings—many led by its renowned music directors—spans nearly a century, beginning with the orchestra’s first 78 rpm singles with Ossip Gabrilowitsch released on the Victrola label in 1928. A steady recording output has continued since then, with highlights including more than 20 releases with Paul Paray for Mercury’s Living Presence series, and 27 under the baton of Neeme Järvi, mostly on the Chandos label. In the 1970s, the DSO took part in the historic Black Composers Series for Columbia Records led by its then-Associate Conductor Paul Freeman and later made several acclaimed recordings with Antal Doráti for the Decca label. More recently, under the direction of Leonard Slatkin, the DSO recorded music by Rachmaninoff, Copland, and John Williams for the Naxos label, earning its first GRAMMY® nomination in 2017 for Copland’s Third Symphony / Three Latin American Sketches. The first recording with Jader Bignamini, of Wynton Marsalis’s Blues Symphony, will be released in 2025 on the Pentatone label.
Since its first school concerts a century ago, and particularly since the founding of the Civic Youth Ensembles in 1970, the DSO has been a national leader in bringing the benefits of music education to students, teachers, and families in Detroit and surrounding communities. The DSO remains committed to expanding its participation in the growth and well-being of Detroit through programs like its Detroit Neighborhood Initiative—cultural events co-created with community partners and residents—and Detroit Harmony, a promise to provide an instrument and instruction to any student in the city who wants to learn. With unwavering support from the people of Detroit, the DSO actively pursues a mission to impact lives through the power of unforgettable musical experiences.