Many arts leaders have been said to toot their own horn, but perhaps none do it as literally as Adam DeRosa, Ph.D., the self-effacing president of South Florida Pride Bands’ board of directors, who plays French horn with its concert band.
“I moved down to South Florida in ‘99, and I ended up joining the band in 2000,” he recalls. “It was really just an opportunity to pick up the instrument again and get involved with something socially.”
A year later, DeRosa joined the board as secretary and, over the years, has served as its treasurer as well as in a previous presidential term from 2004-2011 before reassuming that position in 2017. As he plans to step down from leadership at the end of this season, he remains relentlessly optimistic about the organization he joined when it was known as the Flamingo Freedom Band.
“We became the South Florida Pride Wind Ensemble in 2006 and ‘pride’ was intentional because we felt it was a much more inclusive term,” DeRosa explained about the non-profit that now operates under the umbrella South Florida Pride Bands. “It is really a corporate identity that gives us the space to have all of these different groups with their own identity. Having these other groups that are smaller gives us an opportunity to reach further into the community and partner with other organizations and people who either can’t afford or don’t have the space for an 80-piece concert band.”
Now celebrating its 40th anniversary, South Florida Pride Bands includes a concert band, jazz band, youth band, marching band, steel band, and tropical winds band with a brass quintet and clarinet quartet.
DeRosa, who received his doctorate from the FAU Educational Leadership Program, is the co-founder and coordinator of the South Florida Pride Youth Band that is so successful it has led to the creation and this year’s debut of the group’s seventh ensemble, the South Florida Pride Youth Jazz Band.
“When we decided to create the youth band, we were getting high school kids who were very openly out and about and wanting to join,” he said. “At the same time, there was just an onslaught of national news about LGBTQ youth who were committing suicide if you remember the It Gets Better campaign. The majority of the people in our organization identify as LGBTQ+ and work in a variety of professions. We wanted the students to know that, yes, it does get better. This is the first time we’ve had a lot of students who’ve come in with a lot of jazz band experience and these students will be learning a completely different set of music and be their own little musical ensemble.”
DeRosa has been instrumental in raising the more than $250,000 in college scholarships that have been awarded to youth band members. He has also expanded the repertoire for youth bands worldwide by commissioning three new works: River of Grass by Robert Sheldon, Las Olas by Chandler Wilson, and Proud of Me by Michele Fernandez.
“Outside of the youth band, I would say I’m most proud of how we have been able to weave into the fabric of our community,” DeRosa said. “We really have to say a big thank you to the organizations that have invested in such as The Our Fund Foundation, the Community Foundation of Broward, Broward County Cultural Division, Bears of South Florida, Funding Arts Broward, FLotarama and the Warten Foundation. We certainly wouldn’t be anywhere near where we are today. We aren’t just constrained to LGBTQ+ events or organizations, although that’s important. We have been invited into spaces that probably wouldn’t have happened when this organization started.”
