It’s difficult to identify the exact moment Desirée Roots Centeio achieved living legend status in Richmond. The Grammy-nominated singer/actress has been performing for audiences since the age of five when she sang – or almost didn’t sing – her first paid solo at Cedar Street Memorial Baptist Church of God.
“We had practiced and rehearsed and that Sunday morning, the organist played the intro three times, and I did not sing,” recalls Roots, a graduate of Huguenot High School and Virginia Union University. “The choir director pulled a $1 bill out of her purse and said, ‘If you sing, I will give you this dollar,’ and I started singing!”
Since then – over the course of her fifty-year career – Desirée has been nominated for three Grammy Awards with James Saxsmo Gates and opened for the likes of Brian McKnight, B.B. King, Dionne Warwick, and Sheila E. She has starred in more than forty regional theatrical productions and performed at countless concerts. She wrote Ella at 100, produced by Richmond Jazz Society and Virginia Repertory Theatre, as a fundraiser for both groups’ education and outreach programs, and was one of the creative forces behind Ella and Her Fella Frank, which enjoyed a run at Virginia Rep’s November Theatre in summer 2021. She has worked as a booking manager for Downtown Presents (now Venture Richmond) and is now the artistic director of community at Virginia Rep.
And if that isn’t enough, she’s a wife, a mother, a grandmother, and an all-around incredible human being.
“Desirée’s strength of character is profound. It is real, and she carries it with her wherever she goes. Her character is her calling card. She knows what she’s doing, knows why she’s there, and she sings from the depths of her soul,” says actor Scott Wichmann, the Frank to Desirée’s Ella. “She’s always so connected in spirit to her faith, to her family, and to her gifts. Her music is an extension of who she is.”
Faith, Family, and Growing Up in Richmond
Desirée grew up in a musical family. Her father Jimmy Roots served as the minister of music at church, and her paternal grandfather was one of the first pastors at the church. Her father was a performer with a penchant for jazz and gospel. Her mother, Sarah Brooks Roots, also performed, but put that part of her life on hold to raise the couple’s five children – Desirée was the youngest.
When Desirée was twelve, she and her siblings performed with their parents at churches around Richmond. But one of her fondest memories is watching her dad playing at The Abbey, a club in the Holiday Inn on Robin Hood Road. “I used to hang out with him on Friday or Saturday nights,” she recalls. “The first time I sang in a club was when Dad called me up to sing with him.”
Father and daughter would perform Little Green Apples by Roger Miller. When they came to the lyrics “God didn’t make little green apples and it don’t rain in Indianapolis in the summertime,” young Desirée couldn’t quite pronounce Indianapolis, a faux pas that endeared her to the audience.
Before her mother picked her up from the club earlier in the evening, her dad sang Daddy’s Little Girl to her. “That was always a highlight [of the show],” she says.
Years later, when she was singing professionally, she went from being known as Jimmy Roots’ daughter to being Desirée Roots, she says. “For me that was a turning point in my career – especially when I was performing in the jazz genre.”
She acquired her love for different genres of music through her parents. Her mom Sarah was a bluegrass lover and a big fan of Ricky Skaggs. She passed that love along to Desirée.
“When you listen to bluegrass, you listen to the meaning and the story. My parents taught me that a performer has to sing songs that are stories, and that the story can relay the music,” she says. “Plus, bluegrass is just so much fun.”
When Desirée was working with Downtown Presents (1990 to 2003), she stage-managed performances at the Carpenter Center during The Big Gig, a popular concert series. One night, she found herself helping Ricky Skaggs at the venue. “I tried not to geek out,” she says. “When Ricky walked through the door, I almost flipped out! He gathered everyone for prayer, and it was the most powerful prayer.”
Easing on Down the Road
In 1981 when Desirée was twelve, she was cast in her first professional theatrical show – The Wiz at the now defunct Haymarket Theatre in Mechanicsville. “That’s when the theatre bug bit me,” she says.
When she auditioned, Desirée wanted to be cast as a Munchkin – the characters had been her favorite from the film, The Wizard of Oz. Bev Appleton, the director of the show, called her mother and asked if Desirée would be interested in the role of Dorothy, to which the twelve-year-old replied: “I want to be a Munchkin.”
One of her brothers looked at her and blurted out, “Oh, you are so stupid – Dorothy is the lead role!” Reluctantly, Desirée agreed to be Dorothy in The Wiz.
Once she had the role, her father bought the Broadway show album. “By the time we started rehearsing, I had memorized everybody’s songs. I thought I had to go in ready. Bev called me the true wiz kid,” she laughs.
Desirée has always loved the music from the show, especially one of her solos, “Home.” “It became my signature solo song for about twenty years,” she says, adding that she stepped back into Dorothy’s shoes when she was twenty-one for a performance at Dogwood Dell.
Her performance at the Haymarket, along with her straight-A report card in middle school, caught the attention of the media, resulting in a prominent story in the daily newspaper and the recognition of being a rising Richmond star. Desirée had been featured on radio and TV commercials for The Wiz, which ran for over three months at the theatre. “The kids at school teased me like it was a bad thing to be in the paper,” she says. “Mom told me to hold my head up and not to worry about what people say.”
When the show ended, the cast went to New York to perform in the national tour of the production, but Desiree’s parents wouldn’t let her go. And, that bothered her to the point that she ran away from home – straight to her cousin’s house across the street!
Recognition in Richmond and Beyond
In 1988, Desirée was eighteen when she sang with her first band and also booked Ain’t Misbehavin’ for Theatre IV. She followed that with a variety of musicals and plays for different theaters in Richmond, the Hampton area, Washington, DC, and in Ohio, where she played the Nell Carter role in Ain’t Misbehavin’ at the Blossom Music Festival. “It was such a fun role and one of my favorites,” she says.
Another favorite role of hers was Ti Moune, a peasant girl in Once on This Island, for Theatre IV at Barksdale in the summer of 1995. “It was the most challenging role,” she says. “I had to do a choreographed dance piece, which is one of my biggest fears.” She admits that conquering her fear of dancing made the role even more memorable.
Desirée says a major professional evolution happened for her in the early 1990s when she played three very different characters: an innocent girl with a date in Blues in the Night; a part-time prostitute, Aldonza, in Man of La Mancha; and a retired stripper in Gypsy. “They were three entirely different mindsets on stage,” she says.
In the fall of 2014, Desirée played the part of Vera Charles in Mame for Virginia Rep. “I grew up loving that movie with Lucille Ball and Bea Arthur,” she says. “I was very proud to be the first Black woman to play Vera Charles regionally.”
In 2019, Desirée got to revisit The Wiz when Virginia Rep did the show years after her original debut at the Haymarket. “They wanted me to perform three characters – Aunt Em, the Good Witch Addaperle, and the Wicked Witch of the West Evillene. I remember thinking it was going to be amazing and challenging,” she says. “It was so much fun, even though I had some very challenging quick changes, particularly going from Aunt Em to Addaperle.”
Over the past forty years, Desirée has performed countless concerts in addition to her theatrical endeavors. She’s been a featured soloist with the Petersburg Symphony and with Richmond Symphony Orchestra for its Holiday Pops series. She also released a CD, “Don’t Ever Stop Dreaming,” in 2015.
And of course, there are the Grammy nominations – Best Arranger, Best Soloist, and Album of The Year – that she and James Saxsmo Gates received for the album “Stepping Out.” Desirée was featured on two songs on the album, “Fragile” and “Local…Oh No,” for which she was the lyricist.
“The premise of ‘Local…Oh No’ was that [performers] sometimes hate it when people say local artists or local talent because we’re known nationally and sometimes, internationally,” Desirée explains. “I’ve never been to Paris or Brazil, but my music has been reviewed and recognized there.”
Desirée and Wichmann have performed Ella and Her Fella Frank in many venues – from Cary, North Carolina, to Longwood College to American Theatre in Hampton. Wichmann remembers meeting Desirée in 2001 while staging a revival of the show in Raleigh, North Carolina.
“Rehearsing with her was an absolute delight. It was during that process that I became captivated by her energy, talent, and tremendous heart. When we shared a ride back from North Carolina, it was one laugh after another until her car broke down and we had to get a tow,” says Wichmann. “We still joke about the tow truck driver almost twenty-five years later. Since then, she’s been a constant in my life.”
Family Ties That Bind
Desirée met her husband, Axel Centeio, when she was working with Downtown Presents booking entertainment. She had booked the Glen Miller Orchestra, and he was the band’s driver. When Desirée saw Axel, she thought he was very handsome.
“I noticed his accent, and it was beautiful,” she says. “He kept coming backstage, and we would talk. Two years later we were married.”
Axel now serves as an entertainment coach operator, driving some of the biggest stars on tour, including the Doobie Brothers, Kris Kristofferson, Tim McGraw, and Lady Gaga.
Years later, Desirée still thinks about the day the two met. She wasn’t sure where he was from based on his accent. “He was raised in Rhode Island, but his family is from Cape Verde in Africa, so he has a Portuguese accent,” she says.
Desirée and Axel are the parents of two children – Tavares Centeio (who is twenty) and Eliana Centeio (eighteen). Desirée also has an older son, Kraig Bridy, Jr., from a brief marriage when she was in her late teens, and a granddaughter, Kira. Kraig was raised by his father, who remarried years ago. “We have an amazing blended family,” Desirée says, “and Kraig says he has two moms. We all love each other!”
She laughs when asked if any of her kids sing. “They have amazing voices, but they won’t sing,” Desirée says.
Her son Tavares has worked the fly-rail (a system that moves scenery) for five shows at Virginia Rep. “He became a fly-rail expert,” Desirée says. “He plays the guitar, violin, and bass. He has an amazing ear for music.”
When Desirée recorded the song “Blackbird” in the studio, ten-year-old Tavares played the guitar for the recording. “I was such a proud mom,” she says. Her son Kraig (known professionally as DJ Kibby) also plays the drums and keyboard, and her daughter Eliana is an artist and dancer.
“My [two younger] kids were stage babies,” she says, adding that a nanny or other adult would stay backstage with them while she was on stage. “They were such good babies. They grew up in the wings of whatever theatre I was performing in.”
Family and motherhood mean everything to Desirée. “I loved being pregnant. It was a gift from God. Unfortunately, I suffered five miscarriages,” she says. “I say to Axel that we have two angels on earth and five in heaven.”
Bringing Arts to Community
When Desirée accepted the position of artistic director of community for Virginia Rep in October 2021, she knew it was a perfect fit. “I want to give back because this is the community that raised me,” she says. “When I do a concert and it sells out, I have tears.”
She will never forget her first day on the job, October 25, 2021. It was the date of her dad’s birthday.
“Every year I would go into this pit of sorrow from October 25, my dad’s birthday, to October 30, the day Dad died,” she says. “I was a total daddy’s girl. He died while I was away on tour in 1986, but we did have a moment before I left for the tour. That is the moment to hold onto. Every year I went back and forth about feeling guilty. That first day at Virginia Rep, I was embarking on a new career. I was making him proud.”
In her role as artistic director of community with Virginia Rep, she oversees the Theatre Arts Learning League, which works with underserved communities during the summer and the Disney Musicals in Schools program, which served schools in Chesterfield County. Desirée worked with the students at Bensley Elementary School, where, she says, English was a second or third language for the majority of the students.
“We chose The Lion King as their performing piece. The first song is sung in Swahili. I’m so proud that these babies learned that song, and they did it extremely well,” she says. “It was a gratifying moment.”
One of the students in the ensemble tugged at Desirée’s jacket on the day of the performance and told her he loved music. “It was the first time I heard him say something in English. That made the entire process worthwhile,” she says.
Desirée believes when you fill someone’s soul with art, “you are giving them a paintbrush for life. You are expanding their horizon and their brain,” she says. “Anytime I can help the community and advocate for the arts in Richmond and Virginia, I am all about that.”
She wants to spread the word that theatre welcomes everyone, all races, all ages, and all genders. “So many people have the idea that theatre is not for them. Or they haven’t experienced it,” she says, adding that she wants to expose young people to something new in the arts. “I’m trying to make [theatre] a revolving door to bring people in. That is my mission, to continue to make sure that people are engaged in the arts,” says Desirée.
What’s Next for Desirée?
Desirée’s last gig with Virginia Rep was Chicken & Biscuits in the fall of 2022. The show was about the dynamic in an African American family during the loss of a loved one and family secrets that are revealed. Desirée played the daughter who was the result of the father’s affair.
“The good part about [Chicken & Biscuits] was that so many people could relate to it. The show was hilarious, but there was healing within it. I absolutely enjoyed it. It was refreshing to be in a production that was a straight play and not a musical and also to play that type of surprise character,” she says.
Desirée doesn’t have any theatrical shows coming up at Virginia Rep because her job in administration, her travel plans with family, and her concert schedule will keep her busy. This summer, she will join the Richmond Symphony for a Fourth of July concert, and she will perform for Richmond Parks and Recreation’s Jazz at the Fountain in Byrd Park on July 7 with Weldon Hill and on August 4 as a solo performer.
Whether she’s performing or working behind the scenes in the arts, Wichmann says Desirée “cares deeply about the Central Virginia community – both artistically and sociopolitically – and she is a longtime pillar in it. She has a gift for collaboration and an intuitive sense of how to ride the waves of the energy in any room.”
Wichmann likens Desirée’s strengths as a performer to what she brings to her role as a leader in the community. “It’s why she’s such a legendary jazz interpreter, because she doesn’t push against what’s going on – she rides the wave and steers it where she knows it needs to go. And she does it all with humility, joy, humor, and gratitude,” says Wichmann. “I love her. God bless her!”
