Giorgia Di Girolamo

Giorgia Di Girolamo was born in Abruzzo (Italy) in 1991 and started playing the drums when she was 13 years old. She soon showed a great passion for the music and just after few months of lessons she formed some original bands. After high school, she attended Saint Louis College of Music in Rome where she studied with some of the best Italian musicians, particularly with Claudio Mastracci, herdrum teacher. At the university she also learnt how to play the piano and improved her skills in music theory,composition, ear training, music technology and big band arrangement.

Giorgia played with many jazz and rock bands and recorded several albums. Then she went to Europe for a jazz tour and played in Finland, Spain and Netherlands with the famous bass player Marco Siniscalco.Later she had the chance to study with other important jazz musicians like Roberto Gatto and Rosario Giuliani, with whom she played in some great jazz festivals at Casa Del Jazz.

In 2014 Giorgia was asked to join the City of Rome Pipe Band Association in order to play in the most popular Celtic music show near Rome, Fairylands. She always had a great interest for rudimental drumming and thanks to this band she could deepen her passion and knowledge for the pipe band snare drum. She studied with the lead drummer Emiliano Barnia and after a few months she started playing with the City of Rome Pipe Band as a snare drummer. She did several gigs, played three times on the national TV(RAI)and worldwide for the Six Nations Rugby Match Italy–Scotland in the Olympic Stadium in Rome.

Guided by her realtor and professor Claudio Mastracci, Giorgia decided to write her graduation thesis, a book of 130 pages,on the pipe band snare drum, researching for a connection between Scottish and jazz music. Therefore she went to Scotland to carry out the research and to meet and interview Steven McWhirter (lead drummer of “Inveraray and District Pipe Band” and eight times Solo Drumming World Champion). In Glasgow she studied with the drummer Gurvan Sicard (“Inveraray and District Pipe Band”and “Bagag Cap Caval”)and withProfessor Colin Scott (“College of Piping”). Moreover she met and invited the Tenor Drum World Solo Champion Jordan Bailie to come to Rome and play with her during the concert degreein October 2016. The showwas outstanding andGiorgia’s thesis achieved important results turning out to be the first research concerning Scottish and jazz music carried out in Italy. As a result, shegraduated with honours in jazz percussions with a thesis named“Scottish Snare Drum–Il tamburo nella musica tradizionale scozzese”.

In October 2016, afteran online audition, Giorgia was selected to join an important pipe band based in Sydney, Australia, therefore in January 2017 she moved to Sydney to join the band and to work full time as a music teacher.She spent a few months in the Governor Macquarie Memorial Pipe Band winning with them the “Bathurst Highland Gathering”contest.

She later joined the LCC Southern Cross Pipe Band and won the “Knox Grammar Highland Gathering”contest in grade 3. Meanwhile she also started collaboration with the grade 2City of Adelaide Pipe Band. In October 2017 Giorgia became the lead drummer of the Northern Suburbs Pipe band where she is still teaching,coordinating and writing the music for the percussion section.Since then the band have played regularly in concerts,ceremonies, services and competitions. In September 2018 Giorgia and some band members played on the national Australian TV (Channel 7). In November(2018)the Northern Suburbs Pipe band attended the Central Coast Scottish Spectacular, winning the first place in Grade 4Bat the New South Wales Pipe Band Championships. In September 2018 Giorgia was also asked to write her story in a publication on Drumming Mag by the great Dean James Hall ( see the link https://drummingmad.com/becoming-a-drummer-giorgia-di-girolamo/).

In September 2019 Giorgia received an endorsement contract with the Italian drumsticks FACUS DRUM INNOVATION and since then she has been proudly using their drumsticks to play and teach. In October 2019 Giorgia performed with the Presbyterian Ladies College students at the Edinburgh Military Tattoo in Sydney; then, a month later, she attended the New South Wales Pipe Band Championships in Central Coast and won the first place in Grade 3. During that time she also joined Tahi, an original indie rock band from Sydney; they played several shows, recorded an EP and they got interview from “ERRR Magazine”.

In April 2020 Giorgia was asked to join the City of Melbourne pipe band, even if just for online practice sessions due to COVID-19 restrictions. She is still collaborating with the band and looking forward to be able to play and compete again.In August 2020 Giorgia realised an hybrid drum solo video that she personally wrote, using the two different techniques, Scottish and American. The drum solo, “Mirrors”, represents her versatile playing style, being a jazz drummer and a pipe band snare drummer. The video is online on all the social media platforms, including YouTube and so far received very positive feedback.

Concerning the teaching activities, Giorgia teaches both privately and at schools. She has been working at All Age Music School teaching drum kit and piano and organising drumming workshops since 2017, She worked as snare tutor at the Knox Grammar School from June till September2018 and since November of the same year she is the snare tutor at the Presbyterian Ladies College in Croydon, Sydney.The school is the only one all girl pipe band in New South Wales and the students have regularly attended competitions nationally and internationally. In 2019 the PLC students went to Scotland to attend the European Pipe Band Championship where they competed against juvenile bands and they were the only female band in their category. So far all of Giorgia’s students gained technique, musicality and confidence on the instrument and all of the adults passed the audition to enter at Saint Louis College of Music in Rome, Italy. She is very proud of all of her students and will keep teaching and playing music with passion and enthusiasm.