About Me
Simona De Rosa is an Italian vocalist, composer, and documentarist from Napoli whose artistic journey has carried her across continents, shaping a distinctive musical identity rooted in jazz, world traditions, and the sounds of her hometown. A graduate of Queens College NYC, she is recognized for her versatility and her ability to move effortlessly across styles, languages, and cultural contexts.
De Rosa has built an extensive international performance career. In the United States, she has appeared at renowned jazz clubs and venues including Zinc Bar, The Friars Club, The Cutting Room, Blues Alley in Washington, D.C., and at JAZZ Showcase in Chicago, as well as at numerous Italian festivals across the country in New York, Pittsburgh, Florida, Connecticut, Montreal in Canada, and New Jersey.
Her international touring includes performances at Europa Village Hanoi, major theatres throughout Vietnam, and concerts for the Italian Embassies in Hanoi, Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore, and Berlin. In China, she has appeared at Blue Note Beijing, Blue Note Shanghai, Jazz at Lincoln Center Shanghai, the Guangzhou World Music Festival, the Tahui Jazz Festival in Beijing, and the Europa Summit in Shanghai. In Italy, De Rosa has performed at leading festivals and venues such as Umbria Jazz Festival, Casa del Jazz, Peperoncino Jazz Festival, Pomigliano Jazz Festival, Moncalieri Jazz Festival, Montecorice Jazz Festival, and many others. As a recording artist, she has released five albums as a leader and participated in numerous collaborative projects spanning jazz, world music, and contemporary styles. Her upcoming Italian-language album, Fotografia, will be her sixth release and marks an important artistic milestone.
Alongside her work as a performer, De Rosa is an active documentarist. Her films, shot in Cuba, Vietnam, China, Kazakhstan, and most recently Rome, Italy, explore the relationship between place, tradition, and sound, offering a visual counterpart to her musical research. She has collaborated with internationally acclaimed artists including Michael Mossman, Randall Keith Horton, Ronnie Burrage, Edsel Gomez, Edward Perez, Benito Gonzalez, Wayne Tucker, Daniele Scannapieco, Luca Mannutza, Mike Block, Jamey Haddad, Li Xiaochuan, Isabelle Olivier, and the Polish trio Confusion Project, among others.
Her ability to adapt to diverse musical environments while maintaining a strong personal voice has made her a sought-after collaborator on the international jazz scene. In 2024, De Rosa was awarded two international artistic residencies focused on world folk traditions, one in Almaty, Kazakhstan, and one at the New England Conservatory in Boston. In 2023, she was honored by the Federazioni della Regione Campania in New York for her contribution to the promotion of Neapolitan and Italian culture worldwide.
Since leaving Italy in 2013, De Rosa has lived and worked in the USA, Vietnam, and China, and is currently based in Berlin. From 2018 to 2021, she was a faculty member at the CMA Contemporary Music Academy in Beijing and later taught Jazz Voice at the Conservatories of Trieste and Vicenza. She currently teaches Jazz Voice at the Cuneo Music Conservatory in Italy. Her long-term research into global folk traditions has deeply influenced her compositional and vocal approach. At the core of her artistic vision remains the music of Napoli and its dialect, which she carries as both a cultural and emotional compass.
