#  Come on up and sing! 

 





November 01, 2016

 

 

\[\[{"fid":"741146","view\_mode":"default","type":"media","attributes":{"height":"105","width":"122","style":"float: left;","class":"media-element file-default"}}\]\]Jazz pianist and vocalist Dena DeRose thought her career was over. She was wrong. During a three-day residency, she'll show just how wrong she was.

By Jake Stepansky '17

I’ve never been particularly well versed in the contemporary jazz canon, so [Dena DeRose’s](http://www.denaderose.com/) name was unfamiliar. But the story of her trajectory from pianist to pianist-vocalist is so inspiring that I found myself chomping at the bit to speak with her. Never before have I seen the healing and identity-making power of music so compellingly embodied. DeRose, who has received international acclaim for her versatile jazz piano-vocal performances, will do a three-day residency at Harvard this week. Among the public events: She will be a [Learning From Performers](/lfp) guest artist [in conversation](/event/conversation-singer-pianist-dena-derose) onstage with [Callie Crossley](http://news.wgbh.org/people/callie-crossley), host of Under the Radar on WGBH, at 4 p.m. on November 3 in Holden Chapel, and she [will perform](/event/women-jazz-dena-derose) as part of the “Women in Jazz” theme with the Harvard Jazz Bands at 8 p.m. November 5 in Lowell Lecture Hall. I spoke with DeRose about her story and her music. An edited version of our conversation follows.

**Tell me about your career and life trajectory.**  
\[\[{"fid":"741141","view\_mode":"default","type":"media","attributes":{"height":"244","width":"346","style":"float: right;","class":"media-element file-default"}}\]\]I had gone through two surgeries \[for carpal tunnel syndrome and arthritis\] that took close to two-and-a-half years. At that time, I was not playing much music, and I got very depressed. I was hanging out at a bar one night where my piano teacher and his trio were playing. I went to be around the music, to support them, but he said, “Come on up and sing, Dena!” I wasn’t a jazz singer, but I got up and sang a tune. I sucked, but they had me do another one. The encouragement relit my passion for music, and when I sat down, I looked in the mirror at the bar and decided right there that I was going to get some vocal lessons. Literally the next day I went out and looked for a teacher. Eventually, I started hoofing myself around town with my piano teacher’s trio and built a repertoire. It was a big change. And I didn’t realize that once my hand was better I would do both. I got a three-night gig in my hometown singing and playing and trying to get my hand strong again, and I realized that I could sing and play and have a career doing that. So I moved to New York and kept doing what I did. That was a long time ago – I was 21, so it’s been 29 years. Just singing the music and feeling my heart open was a big turning point in my life. If you have a real passion for music, I believe it never dies, and I do believe we need to nourish it.

**How did you ending up living in Graz, Austria, and teaching at the University of Music and Dramatic Arts?**  
I had lived in New York for 15 years. I felt like a gerbil on the wheel, running around and around. I was working and working, but not feeling like I was getting very far in my career. I was also teaching in five or six schools adjunct. I’ve always enjoyed teaching – I’ve taught since I was 18 and I’ve performed since I was 10, so teaching and performing, for me, go together. It just so happened that two people contacted me looking for a vocal professor in Graz. So I put together my CV and sent it off. Over here, it’s a lifelong job when you get it, but it’s a five-year contract when they decide if they want to keep you. I got the job, and I thought, “Well, OK, I’m just going to move.” And I packed up and moved my life here 10 years ago.

**Has being abroad been influential to you and your career?**  
I have grown to love it. The whole vision of a jazz department in Europe is one that is very much like the States; actually, half of our professors are American. They want us to be out gigging and touring and publicizing the school and doing the residencies. I didn’t plan it, but it just happened in about a two-month period. It was the best thing I ever did in my life.

**If you could record something with any jazz luminary of any era, who would it be?**  
I would have loved to sing with [Bill Evans](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Evans) at the piano. With people who are still alive, I’d love to sing with [Fred Hersh](http://www.fredhersch.com/). That would be so nice.

**What advice do you have for students looking to pursue careers in the performing arts?**   
Do what you love, whatever it is, because if you don’t love it, it’s a hard road. The arts are a hard road anyhow, so you’ve got to have a love for it. I didn’t go to school for this. I went to classical piano for a few years and that was it, and I wasn’t even a good student because I was gigging all the time. I’m pretty much self-taught, other than my voice teacher. You’ve got to love it – whatever you’re going to do. Love for something means you have to nourish it always. It’s not going to be easy. It’s going to be a rollercoaster. There are going to be some high points and low points; you have to roll with the punches if you really love it.

*Support for Dena DeRose's residency provided by the Bernard H. and Mildred Kayden Artist in Residence Fund through Learning From Performers, a program of the Office for the Arts at Harvard.*