Janice Giteck

Seattle-based composer and teacher Janice Giteck studied with Darius Milhaud in the '60s, with Oliver Messiaen in Paris, and, later, percussion and gamelan music with Obo Addy and Daniel Schmidt, respectively. World and ritual music have strongly influenced Giteck's own compositions, including the award-winning works "Breathing Songs From a Turning Sky" (which won the NEA's Composer's Award in the '80s) and "Thunder, Like a White Bear Dancing" (1977 Norman Fromm Composers Award). Giteck has received commissions and grants from Meet the Composer and the San Francisco Symphony, and has written music for two films by Pat Ferrero. In the mid-'80s, she also earned a degree in psychology, and worked several years for a Seattle mental health organization.