Derek Fawcett has shared stages with Peter Frampton, Ben Folds, America, Lifehouse, Pat Benatar, Colin Hay, Gin Blossoms, Blues Traveler, and backed up Chance The Rapper at Lollapalooza. Across five albums with Down The Line, and three as a soloist, he has toured across much of the U.S. and parts of Canada, Europe, and South Africa. The Chicago Tribune has called Derek’s music "...austere singer-songwriter stuff of surpassing grace." His most recent releases “Runnin’ Outta Somedays” and “Sticks & Stones” ft. Dev. feature Kevin Joaquin Garcia (Wheatus, Duncan Sheik), Joe Ayoub (Miley Cyrus, Shakira), Brett Farkas (Lord Huron, Rihanna), and Ben Butler (Sting, Lucinda Williams). EDM collaboration “Puppeteer” (Alfons, B3nte, Jessica Chertock, w/B3VA, co-written by Fawcett) has netted more than a million streams. Of his performance in Hands On A Hardbody (written by Phish’s Trey Anastasio), Chris Jones wrote: "...Derek Fawcett...give(s) the show its zest and its emotional core.".
Derek has been recognized for Excellence in Teaching and several of his students have received Downbeat Magazine Student Music Awards. He is an Associate Professor of singing and songwriting at The Berklee College of Music in Boston and hosts The MusicAnswers Podcast: A series of interviews with activists and experts about the rights of music creators. He is a member of both the Jazz Education Network (JEN) and The Association for Popular Music Education (APME) and has presented at their annual conferences. He holds a Bachelor’s of Music in Jazz Studies from Western Michigan University and a Master’s of Songwriting from NYU.