THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY College of Music presents
Florida State University Percussion Ensemble
John Will Parks IV, Music Director
Featuring
1901 Renegades Rope Drum Ensemble
Austin Pelella, Director
With Special Guests
Tyler Tolles, US Naval Academy Band
Heidi Louise Williams, Piano
Sunday October 19, 2025
2:00 p.m. | Opperman Music Hall
Feeling of Coming Home (2017)
The “New” New Downfall of Paris (2025)
41 (2024)
Victor Labozzetta (b. 1997)
Traditional/John S. Pratt arr. Austin Pelella
Ian Ethan Case (b. 1980) arr. Tyler Tolles (2025)
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (1929-1931)
Maurice Ravel II. Adagio assai (1875–1937)
arr. Luis Rivera (2017)
Islands (1983)
Heidi Louise Williams, piano
Tyler Tolles, vibraphone
Mike Manieri/Steps Ahead arr. Tyler Tolles (2023)
Percussion Ensemble Personnel
Alex Aquino, Nick Bahr, J.J. Baker, Travis Beeton, Caleb Blakeslee, Ethan Brink, Jordan Brown Chance Douglas, Ian Guarraia, Waylon Hansel, Miranda Hughes, Drew Jungslager
Matthew Korloch, Aidan Lenski, Caitlin Magennis, Cole Martin, Will McCoy Owen Montgomery, Gabby Overholt, Austin Pelella, Aiden Pippin, Mackenzie Selimi
Sami Smith, Ethan Stefanski, Tim Thomas, Ethan Turner, Jessica Weinberg
Please refrain from talking, entering, or exiting during performances. Food and drink are prohibited in all concert halls. Recording or broadcasting of the concert by any means, including the use of digital cameras, cell phones, or other devices is expressly forbidden. Please deactivate all portable electronic devices including watches, cell phones, pagers, hand-held gaming devices or other electronic equipment that may distract the audience or performers.
Recording Notice: This performance may be recorded. Please note that members of the audience may at times be included in this process. By attending this performance you consent to have your image or likeness appear in any live or recorded video or other transmission or reproduction made in conjunction to the performance.
Florida State University provides accommodations for persons with disabilities. Please notify the College of Music at (850) 644-3424 at least five working days prior to a musical event to request accommodation for disability or alternative program format.
Tyler Tolles is a native of Monterey, California. He earned a Doctor of Music in percussion performance from Florida State University, where he also received a Master of Music in percussion performance and a Master of Music in jazz studies. He received his Bachelor of Music in percussion performance with a minor in music theory from the University of North Texas. His teachers and mentors include Christopher Deane, Mark Ford, Dr. Robert Schietroma, Ed Smith, Leon Anderson, Nick Finzer, Jake Nissly, and Dr. John W. Parks IV.
Tolles held the positions of Principal Percussionist and Principal Timpanist with the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra from 2013-2018. He was involved with Drum Corps International performing and touring with the Santa Clara Vanguard Cadets and the Santa Clara Vanguard. He has performed internationally throughout Poland and Croatia, as well as a multitude of national festivals and conventions including the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, College Band Directors National Association Conference, Texas Music Educators Association Convention, Next Generation Jazz Festival, and the Monterey Jazz Festival. In 2013, he won the Downbeat Magazine Student Award for Best Latin Group with the UNT Latin Jazz Ensemble.
In 2018, Tolles began his military career by enlisting in the U.S. Air Force, serving for over three years as percussionist with the Air Force Band of the Golden West, Travis AFB, California. He performed and toured with the concert band, jazz ensembles, commercial pop & rock bands, brass quintet, and percussion ensemble, and in 2021, Tolles auditioned and was selected for assignment to the U.S. Naval Academy Band where he reported for duty to Annapolis.
Heidi Louise Williams, praised by New York critic Harris Goldsmith for her ‘impeccable soloistic authority’ and ‘dazzling performances’ has appeared in solo and collaborative performances across North America and internationally. Her engagements have included recitals at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Taiwan National Recital Hall in Taipei, the Kennedy Center, the Chicago Cultural Center, the Brevard Music Festival, the French Embassy in Washington D.C., and festivals in France and Italy. She has given multiple guest artist residencies in leading conservatories and universities in Taiwan and China and has presented lecture-recitals and performances at national and international conferences held by the Society of American Music, the College Music Society, and the International Clarinet Association. Her playing has been featured on WFMT Chicago, Classic 99 St. Louis, WQLN Pennsylvania, and KUAT Tucson radio stations, on WWFM Trenton, New Jersey for David Dubal’s ‘The Piano Matters’, and on classical stations throughout Taiwan and Canada.
Williams’s 2011 Albany Records solo album, Drive American, was named among the top ten classical albums of 2011 in the Philadelphia City Paper, featured in Fanfare’s 2012 Critics’ Want Lists, and has been described as ‘veritably operatic’, ‘bold yet thoughtful’, ‘unflappable’, ‘provocative and stimulating’ (Fanfare), possessing ‘…the muscularity and poetic power to bring this demanding repertory to life’ (American Record Guide). Her 2019 Albany Records solo release Beyond the Sound, featuring sonatas by Griffes, Walker, Floyd, and Barber, was selected twice for inclusion in the 2020 Fanfare Critics’ Want Lists.
Williams completed her BM, MM, and DMA degrees at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, where she studied with Ann Schein and coached chamber music with Earl Carlyss, Samuel Sanders, Stephen Kates, and Robert McDonald.