Outstanding Alum: Impact on the University of Hartford
As a performer, producer, and advocate for the arts, Jolie A. Rocke has devoted her career to lifting artists up. Over the course of the last three decades, Rocke has toured nationally and internationally as a professional vocalist of opera, gospel, and jazz, and has served as a master artist, vocal music clinician, and producer. During that time, she has also worked in public, charter, and Montessori schools as an academic and music teacher in Texas and Connecticut. Her passion for music and the desire to pass it on to her students can be seen in the numerous concerts and community arts programs she has produced, and she continues to train aspiring singers as a private voice teacher, coach, and mentor. Currently, she serves as a full-time lecturer at Prairie View A&M University, the founder of HBCU Arts, and the owner of Rocke Vocal Studio.
Rocke began her career in opera as a young artist with Intermezzo Opera in Connecticut, the Houston Ebony Opera Guild, and internationally with Studio Lirico in Anghiari, Italy. She landed contracts for leading roles with Connecticut Opera, Connecticut Lyric Opera, Houston Ebony Opera Guild, Trilogy Opera, Théâtre national de l'opéra-comique (Paris), and New York Harlem Productions Company. Throughout her impressive career, she has been featured on the stages of New York’s Carnegie (Weill) Recital Hall, Houston's Wortham Theater Center, Hartford’s The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts, and Bridgeport's Klein Memorial Auditorium.
A proud UHart alumna, Rocke received her bachelor’s degree in music education from The Hartt School in 1989, later pursuing graduate degrees in early childhood education from Loyola College, and eventually, a doctor of musical arts from the University of Connecticut. As an undergraduate student, Rocke was a Red Cap and resident assistant. She served as a member of the Hartt Student Council, as well as the African American Students Association.
During her term on the alumni board, Rocke served as chair of the Alumni of Color Task Force as well as a liaison to The Hartt School.
Today, she remains deeply invested in UHart as an active volunteer and generous donor. She resides in Houston, Texas, and has three sons: Justin, Troy, and Andre.