(Reprinted from the 2023 JEN Guide)
Photo: Artist website
Back in 2006, pianist/singer Dena DeRose was on the list of go-to jazz educators in New York City, hustling between teaching jobs at important schools like SUNY-Purchase, NYU, the New School, and the Manhattan School of Music. At the same time, her performing was thriving—she was touring internationally and had just self-produced her Maxx Jazz debut, A Walk In The Park, her fifth record as a leader. By all measures, DeRose’s New York-based career was on a decided upswing.
Two chance phone calls would disrupt the plot points of this upswing, however. Within the space of 24 hours, two friends from unrelated music circles had phoned to urge DeRose to apply for an open post at Kunst-Universität Graz—the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz, Austria, about 200 kilometers south of Vienna.
“I ended up getting accepted to audition for it, and it was a huge process,” she recalled in a recent video interview. “I went over to [Graz] to audition, and three months after, they emailed me the acceptance. That was about a month and a half before I had to move and start a whole new life. Looking back on it, I think, ‘Wow—that was a lot.’”
This unexpected geographic shift proved providential. Now tenured at KUG, DeRose continues to head the University’s vocal jazz program almost 17 years on, and Graz is her permanent home. From this perch at the center of European culture, she’s gone on to craft eight additional albums and solidify her global reputation as a top-tier jazz musician.
What sets DeRose apart is the exquisite balance she strikes between vocal artistry and exhilarating pianism. For many singers who play, comping serves as a mere enhancement to the vocal line. And for many players who sing, vocals come second to their instrument. But for a few musicians—DeRose among them—these two types of creative expression inform each other, generating a rare musical synchronicity.
“I come from an instrumentalist approach,” explained DeRose, who had been playing piano professionally for years before taking up singing. “And when I started teaching in the ‘90s, it was just starting to happen that singers were wanting to know more about what they're singing, what's going on with the band, and how to arrange their own songs. But it was still a rocky road, believe me. I do a lot of workshops everywhere, and it [wasn’t until] around 2009 that I saw singers really wanting to be musicians. So, that's my goal—it’s been my goal forever—to have singers leave the school and be good musicians, to have an instrument that's healthy, and to be able to do whatever they want with it.”
No small objective. But at KUG, DeRose’s student singers undergo a rigorous course of study, with juried performances and required piano instruction as a second instrument. Singers, too, receive Estill Voice Training, a complex technique that offers maximum flexibility across all vocal genres.
“They’re doing everything,” DeRose said, pointing out the school’s wide range of vocal ensembles, from pop to fusion to big band. “It spans the whole spectrum of how jazz has influenced every style of music.”
This expansive curriculum also reflects younger musicians’ increasingly more inclusive musical interests. In any given class, DeRose might be working with singers who want to specialize in traditional swing, avant-garde, contemporary jazz, or singer-songwriting, for instance.
“In general, [students today] are much more open minded,” DeRose stated. “They get that every style of music is still being played. I don't think that [previously] students realized that there were new composers out there writing ragtime or boogie woogie—new stuff that is unbelievable. But I think that today they’re open to exploring a lot of styles, and they see young people doing pre-swing, contemporary, bebop, fusion—all of it. And they hear that influence in young artists like Esperanza [Spalding], who comes from a lot of different styles, yet is rooted in jazz. Yeah—it’s an interesting time in jazz education.”
It’s also been a challenging time. Like music educators everywhere, DeRose had to scramble to find workarounds during the pandemic lockdowns, relying on the tools of remote learning to instill serious musicianship in her students. She accepts that some of these tools—teaching via recordings and videos—have become de rigueur for the classroom. But in one key way, traditional learning remains unchanged.
“The one-on-one lesson will never be replaced,” DeRose asserted. “I do feel that the students understand that and are very thankful that that time is over.”
DeRose is, too—not just for her teaching, but for her gigging. In May 2020, she had just launched her latest record, Ode To The Road (High Note), when international touring shuddered to a halt. Despite critical plaudits (like a four-and-a-half-star review in Downbeat), the release “got put on a backburner.” So, this year’s touring—presenting the album’s new material for the first time with different musicians both in Europe and the States—has been a joyous return.
Part of that return is an opening night show at the JEN conference with drummer Matthew Wilson and bassist Martin Wind, her collaborators on the album and her regular trio for almost 24 years. “I’m really thrilled to share this with them,” she said. “We don’t get to play together all the time—they’re busy guys.”
In truth, DeRose has a full agenda herself. Besides her academic obligations, her performing is ramping up again. She’s also preparing two new albums, one for High Note and another for a German label. But it’s slower going, she says, with “Covid brain”—after her own bout with the illness, she’s taking some time to sort out her next steps.
Of late, though, at least one thing has become clearer. “During Covid I saw some past students on YouTube. Many of them are doing their own music, and it's jazz-influenced,” she said. “I realized that I'm doing the right thing, because of this nice feedback, even though it’s indirect. It shows me that they're good musicians.”