Simona De Rosa - Salgemma (2020)

Simona began her musical journey in Napoli, in the south of Italy. Before focusing exclusively on singing during her teens, she studied classical piano and tennis player. She recalls first singing at 8 years old, and continued to sing while participating in various school functions. At 16 she was referred to the president of Napoli’s CFM School, where she studied classical voice training under the guide of Cristina Florio. As a teenager she discovered her voice and started singing different types of music from classical to pop and soon become fascinated by jazz and the thrilling possibilities of spontaneous improvisation. Not long after embarking on her jazz studies, Simona was already active on the local jazz scene joining little groups and big bands. Rather than enroll in a conservatory, Simona worked towards a Bachelors degree in Geological Science in Napoli; after earning her Bachelors Degree, Simona explored the italian music scene and took a solo trip to New York. There, the decision to go deeper into the jazz language in an international environment. She moved to New York where she earned a Masters Degree in Jazz Performance from the Queens College in 2014, graduating with honors. During these years, she performed extensively with her group, and joined various rhythm sections in different American and European cities.
While in United States, Simona documented her musical growth and talent on her well-received 2015 debut album, Waves (Picanto Records), a collection of 9-track program that spanned the American mainstream Jazz repertoire and Scat. She navigated the jazz idiom fluently, on its own terms of engagement, displaying her prodigious vocal instrument, refined musicianship, inherent soulfulness, and ability to convey both emotional transparency and ebullient swing. The same year she recorded My travel, a journey of Neapolitan classic songs released at the theatre Stage 72 and the worldwide famous Friars Club in Manhattan. Simona was very welcomed from the the italian-american community and attended several the community-related events and festivals. She made her debut on the national television ABC7 during the Columbus Day Parade in 2013 on fifth avenue and was invited many times at the Carmen Mathis Show. In 2014 she produced and organized a concert named after the same parallel that links Napoli and New York:”41st parallel”. A titanic operation with 60 musicians on the stage of the LeFrak Concert Hall. That night Simona was awarded by the Country Executive Ed. Mangano for her spirit of leadership and dedication to the italian-american community. Crucial was the friendship with the singer/actor Dominic Chianese (The Sopranos and God Father) who guided her in the difficult and competitive word of the American show business. Soon also the collaboration with Randall Keith Horton (Michal Jackson, Duke Ellington) who chose her as a soloist of the Duke Ellington Sacred Concerts, majestic composition performed at the Kupferberg Center for the Arts in New York. In 2017 she was invited for a Jazz Diva Residency of three months at the Metropole Sofitel in Hanoi, Vietnam. Simona took this opportunity to discover a new culture and music language and fully embraced it. Before leaving the States for Hanoi, she was performed at the United Nations of New York on a program dedicated to the protection of the oceans.
Hanoi represented for Simona the key to discover her inner soul and spirit. She studied vietnamese music and was invited by the dean of the Hanoi College of Arts to teach a masterclass named “ The Jazz Voice”. She has been the international voice for the vietnamese national project “GIỮ LẤY TUỔI THƠ , a remarkable production against child abuse.
In the meantime, while living in Hanoi, she organized a tour in Asia which brought her to perform and teach for one month in Cina (Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong) and Singapore. After teaching a masterclass at the Beijing Contemporary Music Academy, she was asked to move into the capital and join the jazz faculty.
Since 2018 Simona lives in Beijing and tours around the world with her projects.
She also participated in several jazz competitions, winning first prize in “Big Band Competition for jazz vocalist” in Rome at Casa del Jazz and won the prestigious scholarship “Dennis Irwin”, while earning finalist honors in the International Jazz Competition Voicingers 2011 (Poland).