Richard DeRosa

Richard DeRosa is a full professor at the University of North Texas where is the director of Composition and Arranging within the Jazz Studies program. in 2015 he received a Grammy nomination for Best Instrumental Composition for his big band composition “Neil” which is dedicated to Neil Slater, the former director of the One O’Clock Lab Band.

Since 2012, he has conducted and arranged music for the prestigious WDR Big Band in Cologne, Germany, serving as the band's chief conductor from 2014-2016. He arranged and conducted the CD/DVD recording My Personal Songbook with the band (released in 2015) which features the music of legendary jazz bassist Ron Carter who is featured with the band. Other WDR projects with guest artists include Joshua Redman, Stefon Harris, Kurt Elling, Patti Austin, the New York Voices, Richie Beirach & Gregor Huebner, Garry Dial & Dick Oatts, Ute Lemper, Bill Mays & Marvin Stamm, and Warren Vaché.

Since 2001 Mr. DeRosa has arranged and conducted music for Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra to feature Toots Thielemans, Annie Ross, Willie Nelson, Norah Jones, Cassandra Wilson, and Roberta Gambarini among several other notable artists that include a collaborative theater project (A Bed and a Chair) with Stephen Sondheim and an arrangement of The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea for the successful swing jazz Broadway show After Midnight. His arrangements were also featured on the Wynton with Strings concert celebration in 2005.

Mr. DeRosa's arrangements for orchestra have been performed by the Cleveland Orchestra, the New York Pops, the Portland Maine Pops, the UNT One O’Clock Lab Band with the Houston Symphony Orchestra, the Metropole Orchestra in Holland and the Swedish Television and Radio Orchestra in Stockholm.

He is the author of Concepts for Improvisation: A Comprehensive Guide for Performing and Teaching (Hal Leonard Publications) and Acoustic and MIDI Orchestration for the Contemporary Composer (Focal Press).