Longtime Gar-Field strings teacher retires after three decades

Mike Trowbridge’s talent for teaching showed itself early. By the time he was a senior at Woodbridge High School, the now retired Gar-Field High School Orchestra Director had spent several years giving guitar lessons.

“Teaching at the music store was a blast,” said Trowbridge, who learned the guitar as a seventh grader, and a few years later, the violin. “I thought, ‘wow, you could do this for a living?’ ”

Trowbridge’s penchant for picking carried over to an undergraduate degree in music education and master of music in the double bass at James Madison University and eventually to a 33-year career as a strings teacher and orchestra director.

This spring, Trowbridge, 55, finally called his career with Prince William County quits, more than three decades after starting his teaching career in Stafford County Public Schools. His last concert at Gar-Field on May 7 turned out to be not only an outstanding show, but a tribute to a man who made music fun for generations of Prince William County students.

“Mr. Trowbridge is an inspiration to kids,” said Osie Brown, a 1990 graduate who came in from a Philadelphia suburb to see Trowbridge and particpate in a piece performed by other alumni.  “... He’s got such a great style of just making it fun. Orchestra was always just a blast.”

Gar-Field sophomore and orchestra member Hallel Basco agreed, saying Trowbridge took the time to get know her despite her busy schedule and encouraged her to improve her skills with the violin.

“He’s the only teacher that knows who I am,” said Basco, who spends free time as a member of the crew team and the International Baccaleaurate program. “He understands me. When I don’t practice, he’s like, ‘OK, I will give you a break.’”

Understanding and relating to people is his real gift, said wife Debbie, who wed Trowbridge in 1983.  His love of life is infectious, Debbie said. That, along with a killer smile, is what attracted her to him.

“When he teaches, he doesn’t teach the music, he teaches the person,” said Debbie, also a strings teacher in the county. “That is the thing about him that makes him so special.”

Recently retired Hylton High School band director Dennis Brown said Trowbridge was the “perfect blend of tenderness and toughness.”

Brown worked with Trowbridge from 1976 to 1978 in Stafford County, followed him to Gar-Field in the late 1980s and eventually took over band duties for Hylton when it opened in 1991.
Trowbridge called Brown his mentor, yet whenever Brown had a question about orchestra, he would dial up his “pupil” for advice.

“If you had to describe a perfect teacher, it would be Mike Trowbridge,” said Brown, who attended Trowbridge’s final concert at Gar-Field last weekend after his friend did the same for him the week previous.

Trowbridge said he had an agreement with Debbie, who has taught part-time for 10 years, that when he retired, she would return to work full-time.

Trowbridge said he will likely focus his energies on private lessons and help with the Youth Orchestras of Prince William, where he has served as concert orchestra director in the past.