Born in San Jose, California, Joe has been playing the drums since the age of five. He was first taught at home by his older brother Gino. He later became active playing in school bands and is an alumni of the Alum Rock Jazz Band (88). At age 14, Joe began playing professionally around the San Francisco bay area. He has had the honor of studying with such greats as Louie Bellson, Joe Porcaro, Freddie Grubber, Wally Schnalle, Bryant Mills, Karl Carter, John Ramsay, Rick Considine, Lewis Nash, Kenwood Denard, Mike Mangini and many others. In 1994, Joe followed his dream and moved to Boston to attend the prestegious Berklee College of Music. The Berklee experience was everything Joe could have imagined. He graduated in 1998, with a Bachelors in Performance, Magna Cum Laude. While living in Boston, Joe toured with R&B, Blues diva, Toni Lynn Washington. Now that Joe has moved back to San Jose he has most recently finished two European tours with Hip-Hop artist, Kofy Brown, and a northern California tour with Italian tenor, Pasquale Esposito. Joe also in November 2006 had the honor of performing his debut drum clinic for San Jose Pro Drum opening for drum legend, Tommy Aldridge. In October of 2008, Joe completed a Japanese tour with jazz vocalist, Yoshiko Oda and The Hristo Vitchev quartet. They performed all over Japan including the Okazaki Jazz Festival. Joe is a member of The Hristo Vitchev Quartet who recentley finished their recording "Song for Messambria" and performed at The AT&T San Jose Jazz festival. Joe is also a leader of his own jazz-fusion group, Joe DeRose and Amici which just completed their debut album, "Sounds for the Soul" The band was honored to perform their CD release at Yoshi's in Oakland, CA. "A wonderful talent and a wonderful friend!" —Louie Bellson, Drum legend