About
Derek Brooker is a Sonoma County based guitar player with roots in jazz, blues, and rock and roll. He's been playing music professionally for over two decades. Derek has a Bachelor of Arts in Music from San Francisco State University. Derek has supported pit orchestras for musicals in San Francisco, San Jose and the greater Bay Area since 2003. He spent all of the oughts into the teens touring 300+ days a year with the rock and soul band Tracorum.
These days Derek spends most of his time in the pits. Most recently, he jumped on the “Legally Blonde, The Musical” national tour for its final three months. He travelled all over the country playing strings in a tight knit orchestra with a stellar cast. The tour saw a lot of one night stands as well as weeks long residencies. It was a great feeling for Derek to be back on the road but in a different capacity to the “rock n roll” van life. While working with Big League Productions on Legally Blonde, Derek was invited to be part of the promotional recordings for the upcoming inaugural national tour of “Cher, The Musical”. His experiences with this company were beyond gracious. It was a wonderful opportunity to play some of the oldest and most beautiful theatres in the country.
2019 began with participation in the world premier of “Paradise Square” at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre which utilized all of his stringed instrument capabilities. The score demanded he play guitar, mandolin, banjo, and resonator slide. “Paradise Square” is currently showing on Broadway. Derek then played in a 21 piece orchestra for Throckmorton Theatre’s production of “Ragtime”. He was ecstatic to join the orchestra for the Mountain Play performance of “Grease” that summer. Right after that, Derek played orchestral guitar in a 32 person orchestra for the musical “Les Miserables” at the El Cerrito Performing Arts Center. This was the lead up to a weekend of funk at the “For the Funk of It” music festival in Belden, CA.
In the fall of 2019, Derek played electric guitar, acoustic guitar, and mandolin in Ray of Light Theatre Company’s rendition of “Caroline, or Change” which had a scheduled run of thirteen shows at the Victoria Theatre in San Francisco. He was invited to begin playing in “Ragtime” with TheatreWorks of Mountain View, which would have run through March and April 2020. These performances and all future musical plans were canceled due to the pandemic for the next two years.
Derek was invited back to the Berkley Repertory Theater to back up the Avett Brothers in their musical debut “Swept Away” at the beginning of 2022. Every weekend through the month of April Derek performed as Jimmy, Hank Williams’ electric guitar player at Santa Rosa’s 6th Street Playhouse with “Hank Williams- Lost Highway.” He was humbled and grateful to also have been invited back to a third season with the Mountain Play on Mount Tamalpais as well. The company brought “Hello Dolly” to their beautiful 90 year old amphitheater. September brought another jukebox musical! Always…Patsy Cline presented by Center REPertory was hosted September 9-25th at Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek.