Brooke DeRosa '97

Brooke DeRosa ’97 is a composer and songwriter as well as a classically-trained pianist and soprano vocalist. Her love of music led her to branch out, teaching herself guitar, playing in several Brooke bands, and learning how to DJ.

Originally from New York, Brooke came to Trinity Prep in her senior year. She was immersed in both music and theater performance at Trinity Prep and appeared in “Twelve Angry Jurors” (based on “Twelve Angry Men”); ”Vanities”; “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown”; and a concert production of “Les Miserables.”

Brooke graduated from Washington and Lee University with a double major in music and theater, with an emphasis on vocal performance. In pursuit of professional musical performance experience, Brooke moved to Los Angeles, where she started several bands and wrote both the music and the lyrics for their shows. Her interest in composition expanded through courses at UCLA in orchestration and film scoring.

As a featured soloist, Brooke performed opera and musical theater songs for Jimmy Kimmel at the opening of the San Gennaro festival in Los Angeles, which was webcast nationally. She had the privilege of singing for the late Gore Vidal, his friends, and many guests at his home in the Hollywood Hills. Most recently she was a vocal soloist with the Pacific Symphony and Long Beach Opera. Brooke wrote a score for a full-length science-fiction comedy entitled “The Search for Simon,” directed by award-winning BAFTA director Martin Gooch, which premiered in London, and “Needlestick,” a horror film starring Lance Henriksen of “Aliens” fame.

Brooke has worked as a musician and actor on several TV shows: The Tyra Banks Show, Mr. Romance, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and The Rock-and-Roll Acid Test. She has also scored short films that have been presented at film festivals: “The Death Valley Two-Step,” “Want,” “Pink Slip,” “The Dashing Mr. Lowell,” “Informant,” and “The Hand of Now.” Her Internet films include “Dichotomy,” “Séance Solitaire,” and “Rendezvous Noir,” and she has also completed a full-length western called “Gunfight at Yuma.” She composed the theme song for “Exit Hollywood,” which is a TMZ-styled Hollywood gossip show running in Europe and parts of Asia.

Brooke continues to sing and remains active in and around L.A., performing in operas like “The Magic Flute,” “Suor Angelica,” and “The Gift of the Magi” and originating all the lyric soprano roles in Jonathan Price’s opera “Aesopera,” which had its premiere at the Pasadena Playhouse.