The Florida State University Percussion Studio
Our percussion studio is comprised of 29 graduate and undergraduate percussion performance majors, music education majors with percussion emphasis, and select secondary area students, depending upon auditions and teaching assistant loads. The 2003-04 studio includes five graduate assistants (two DM students and three MM students), who are in charge of Instrument Storage, select applied lessons, percussion ensemble/chamber ensemble coaching, the Marching Chiefs Drum Line, and teaching the Percussion Methods class for the non-percussion music education majors. Dr. Parks teaches the top fifteen students and directs the top FSU Percussion Ensemble, as well as supervising graduate assistants and administering the weekly studio class.

Admission to the program is highly competitive at both the graduate and undergraduate levels, and opportunities for performance with our nationally-acclaimed symphonic, jazz, and world music ensembles are open to all. Additional performance opportunities exist with the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra through an annual audition held in the Fall.

Numerous guest artists are on-campus each year for lectures, masterclasses, and solo performances; please check our guest artists link for more information on visiting percussionists, as well as special masterclasses from our own FSU Faculty Percussionists.

We are fortunate at FSU to have incredible performance and rehearsal facilities, as well as equipment. Our arsenal includes four full sections of battery and mallet instruments, featuring four sets of Walter Light timpani, five-octave marimbas for practice and performance, and an ever-increasing number of new instruments to ensure your training takes place on the best and most current instruments available. Our four designated concert halls and recital facilties, including Ruby Diamond Auditorium and Opperman Music Hall, are amongst the most versatile and beautiful in the country, and plans are underway for a new $36 million-dollar concert facility dedicated solely to the Florida State School of Music.