Currently, in addition to working her day job—Production Office Manager at Alley Theatre, in Houston—Gitiim occasionally plays gigs with local Houston bands, lays down drum tracks for local artists, and works with a cover party band called By Request.

Besides her own viscera, G’s influences include: Siouxsie & the Banshees, Stewart Copeland, Terry Bozzio, B-52’s, AC/DC, Prince, Jane’s Addiction; music genres like old school punk, dance/pop, techno; George Ballanchine (so much rhythm in his choreography, she feels), some amazing teachers (Claire Heldrich, Bill Gladd, Eddie Locke, Ivan Hampden, Jr.), and those colleagues whom she had the pleasure to listen to and learn from! Says G, “If someone were to ask me in which drummer do I see a reflection of myself or to whom I feel a connection, it would be Taylor Hawkins, drummer for the Foo Fighters.”

While in elementary school, Gitiim began studying orchestral percussion and music theory at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City. Then, while still at MSM, she entered the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art as a music major, and that fall, at age thirteen, Gitiim became a member of Dance Theatre of Harlem‘s percussion ensemble. With DTH, she gained professional performing credits touring nationally with the dance company, founded by the late Arthur Mitchell. The highlight of that experience was performing with the Kennedy Center Orchestra, when DTH was on tour at the Center in Washington, DC, the winter of 1981. Years later, in Dallas, Texas, upon completion of studies in both Theatre Arts, and Communications (TV/Radio), Gitiim graduated cum laude from Southern Methodist University, Meadows School of the Arts. 

Besides being an ardent lover of music, art, theater, dance, and history, Gitiim is an avid reader, and an enthusiastic traveler, who likes to document her travels with photographs. You can view some of Gitiim’s photography work here…and look forward to more, coming soon.