meet the artist Helen De La Rosa

Helen De La Rosa Biography

Helen De La Rosa is an internationally renowned drummer, mix engineer and arranger from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Throughout her professional career she has worked with artists such as Juan Luis Guerra, Marcus Miller, Victor Wooten, Donny McCaslin, MARO, Miki Howard, Philip Lassiter and countless others. She is currently on a world tour with spanish megastar Alejandro Sanz, a 23 times Latin Grammy award winning and 3 times Grammy award winning artist. She has been featured in some of the most important Drums and percussion magazines and platforms, such as DRUM! Magazine, DrumChannel, Drummer’s Resource and more. 

Her professional career began when she was only 15 years old by immediately working with the most in-demand musicians in the country, such as award winning pianist Ania Paz, one of the most ranked jazz pianists in Dominican Republic. Also, by being a top liner at some of the most important events in Santo Domingo, such as the 2006 National Book Festival, where she had her own performance representing the future of the Dominican Republic, with the president of the country being part of the audience. This event happened at the biggest theater in Santo Domingo, “The National Theater” with a full house. 

After graduating from the National Conservatory of Music of Santo Domingo, Ms. De La Rosa received a Presidential Scholarship from Berklee College of Music, making her the first and only Dominican in the history of the college to receive such award. She graduated Magna Cum Laude after finishing her Bachelor’s degree in Performance with a minor in Music Production and Engineering. While in Boston, she worked with countless musicians, both in live and studio settings. Some of them were: Antonio Serrano (former harmonica player for Paco de Lucía), Nona Hendryx (Grammy Nominated vocalist and record producer), George Garzone (legendary saxophonist that has worked with Aerosmith, Aretha Franklin, Chick Corea, Joshua Redman, Elvis Presley, among others), Rebecca Cline, Leo Blanco, Terri Lyne Carrington, Steve Bailey, Ralph Peterson and many more. Ms. De La Rosa was selected many times to be the drummer for exclusive events and represent the college. In 2015, she was handpicked by the president of the college, Roger Brown, to perform at a fundraiser for US Presidential candidate and former secretary of state, Hillary Clinton.

Ms. De La Rosa has played all around the globe. She performed and gave master classes in Mumbai and New Delhi, India, alongside Chantel Hampton, Mark Copeland, and Winston Maccow in 2015\. While in Mumbai, she also performed with world renowned bass prodigy Mohini Dey (A.R. Rahman, Clinton Cerejo, and many more). She also went on tour with her band Amalur in Central America (El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Costa Rica) where they performed and gave several master classes. They released their debut self titled album that same year, in which Ms. De La Rosa worked, not only as a drummer, but also as an engineer, co-writer and co-producer. The album has been highly appreciated and featured in several newspapers around the world. Most recently they did a small tour in Spain, Basque country area and were highly appreciated by their audiences.

Ms. De La Rosa toured the US east coast with Grammy nominated and world renowned saxophonist Donny McCaslin at several legendary jazz venues, like the Dizzy Jazz Club in New York. She also worked with award winning producers and composers Wendy & Lisa, known for their work in countless movies and TV-shows such as “Heroes”, “Crossing Jordan”, “Nurse Jackie” but also from playing with Prince and The Revolution. In that same project Ms. De La Rosa also worked with multi-platinum selling record producer and engineer Susan Rogers who among many other projects has engineered Prince’s album “Purple Rain” that is regarded as one of the best albums in music history.

Ms. De La Rosa performed and gave master classes in Boston and South Carolina alongside five-time Grammy award winning bassist Victor Wooten, one of the "Top 10 Bassists of All Time" according to Rolling Stone in 2011.  She also performed with world renowned trumpet player Farnell Newton, who has worked with artists such as: Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Jill Scott, Chaka Khan, Lettuce, Ron Isley, Earth, Wind and Fire, Skerik, Lalah Hathaway, R. Kelly, Gladys Knight and countless others. 

 She was also featured at (and was the cover of) PASIC - Percussive Arts Society International Convention - the largest drum and percussion event in the world, 2016.  She has been featured as well in several prestigious magazines, radio shows and TV shows such as: Drum! Magazine (One of the biggest percussion magazines in the world), Drum Channel (Top t.v. and video channel for percussionists worldwide, featuring the most important drummers in the industry), Drummer’s Resource (the largest podcast that features interviews with the best drummers in the industry), and more.

Not only as a session drummer, but also as an arranger and producer, she worked tremendously with acclaimed artist MARO on her self titled album MARO, on all 3 volumes. The album has been a great success, reaching millions of plays on Spotify. 

Ms. De La Rosa Performed with the Sócrates García Latin Jazz Orchestra at the 2016 Jazz Education Network (JEN), one of the most important Jazz conventions in the US, featuring only the top Big Bands and Jazz musicians in the US and the world. This orchestra is the leading pioneer of Afro Dominican music combined with Big Band Jazz. Their debut album “Back Home”, where Ms. De La Rosa recorded all drums, won the Global Music Award Gold medal and was selected as one of the top ten Best of 2016 albums in the Latin/Brazilian Jazz category by Ken Franckling (winner of the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for excellence in music journalism and writer/photographer for United Press International, JazzTimes, Down Beat, SWING Journal and others). 

In 2018, also at JEN, she performed with Marcus miller, the single most important bassist that developed the “slap” technique. Besides being a world-renowned electric bass player, he is a two-time Grammy award-winning composer and producer. He has worked with trumpeter Miles Davis, pianist Herbie Hancock, singer Luther Vandross, saxophonist David Sanborn, among many others.         

                                                 

Ms. De La Rosa has been working with Noriko Wright,  prestigious pianist, musical director and arranger that has worked with: Ellen DeGeneres, Jessy J, Pink, Sheila E., Aretha Franklin, Luther Vandross, James Brown, Chaka Khan, Natalie Cole, Lee Ritenour and many more. Not so long ago, Ms. De La Rosa and Wright have been working for Grammy nominated, soul train award winner and multi-platinum recording artist and actress Miki Howard, who had a string of Top 10 hit songs in the 80s and 90s that peaked at number one on the U.S. Billboard Top R&B Singles chart. They have performed at distinguished venues such as Catalina’s Jazz Club in Hollywood and Yoshi’s in Oakland to name a few. 

Ms. De La Rosa has also been working with producer, arranger and bassist Jae Deal who has worked with several world-class artists including Lady Gaga, Snoop Dogg, Janet Jackson, Jay-Z, Ne-Yo, T-Pain, Jessica Simpson, Jill Scott, Elton John and more. She has recorded drums for his upcoming album: “The Colour Collection” where in one of the tracks features a drum duo between her and Tony Royster Jr., drummer for Jay-Z, Joe Jonas, featured artist on Late Show with David Letterman and more. Currently, live performances of The Colour Collection have started occurring in Los Angeles featuring acclaimed musicians among which can be mentioned The Regiment Horns, a highly celebrated horn section who have worked with Meghan Trainor, Coldplay, Tori Kelly, Justin Timberlake, Bruno Mars, Stevie Wonder and many more. 

Also Ms. De La Rosa has performed with seven time Grammy award-winning trumpet player, arranger and producer Philip Lassiter, who is mostly known for being the former horn section director for Prince but has also worked with artists such as Anderson Paak, Fred Hammond, Kirk Franklin, Snarky Puppy, Jill Scott, Ledisi, Al Jarreau, Anita Wilson, Mono Neon and countless others.

On April 2018, Ms. De La Rosa worked with world famous singer, composer and producer Juan Luis Guerra. He has sold over 30 million records, and has won numerous awards including 18 Latin Grammy Awards, 2 Grammy Awards, 4 billboard Awards and 2 Latin Billboard Music Awards. 

Ms. De La Rosa is the drummer for worldwide famous artist Alejandro Sanz and has been traveling the world since April 2019 on #LaGira world tour. And will continue on to year 2021.

Country: United States

Band: Alejandro Sanz