Rosa Avila
Independent
Overview
Rosa was born in Bad Godesberg, Germany, and spent her childhood in Mexico and Vienna, Austria. She began playing drums at age 16 and studied at the Facultad de Música de la Universidad Veracruzana in Xalapa, Veracruz, and the Escuela Superior de Música in Mexico City.
She later received a scholarship from the Mexican National Endowment for the Arts to complete her training at the Musicians Institute in Los Angeles, where she studied with Joe Porcaro, Casey Scheuerell, Ralph Humphrey, and Taka Numazawa. Upon graduating in 1991, she was named Outstanding Student of the Year and also received the Human Relations Award, becoming the first student to earn both honors in the same year.
Rosa has performed with a wide range of artists, including The Lennon Sisters, Ann-Margret, Pat Boone, Glen Campbell, Debby Boone, Shari Lewis, Elkie Brooks, Petula Clark, and Lea DeLaria. In 1992, she began a long-standing association with Andy Williams, performing with him through 2009.
She is a member of Monika Herzig’s Sheroes, with whom she has recorded two albums, and she continues to freelance in New York. In 2018, she held the drum chair for SUMMER: The Donna Summer Musical on Broadway.
In 2019, Rosa held the drum chair for four Off-Broadway productions: Chick Flick, Broadway Bounty Hunter, Love in Hate Nation, and For Colored Girls. She has also performed in Suffs at The Public Theater and in John Leguizamo’s Kiss My Aztec.
She performed on All the Ladies by Joanie Leeds, which won a Grammy Award in 2020. More recently, she has subbed on Broadway productions including Back to the Future, Shucked, and Real Women Have Curves. In 2024, she served as the principal drummer for the Tony Award–winning Suffs on Broadway.
Rosa endorses Pearl Drums, Zildjian, Evans Drumheads, and Vic Firth.
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