Mike Glaze is an active freelance musician in the panhandle of Florida, percussionist with the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra, and a Doctoral Candidate in Percussion Performance at Florida State University. Most recently, he was the Director of Percussion at Kell High School, the Director of Bands at Holy Innocents Episcopal School, and served as Principal Percussionist with the Rome Symphony Orchestra. Mike performs regularly with Atlanta-based percussion trio North Star Percussion, and spends each summer as the Faculty Instructor of Percussion and Music Department Chair for the Georgia Governor's Honors Program, a four-week residential experience for gifted and talented high school students.
As a performer, Mike’s diverse background allows him the ability to fit comfortably in any setting. He performs with orchestras throughout the Southeastern United States, toured the Midwest with the Pan American Steel Band, performs and has recorded with the Florida State Percussion Ensemble, as well as embarked on repeated tours with Carolina Crown Drum Corps. His membership with North Star Percussion provides an opportunity to play a lot of jazz vibraphone, and he is called regularly to play drum set with several music groups in and around the area.
An active arranger, Mike is well versed in writing for marching and concert bands, percussion ensembles, steel bands, and chamber groups of nearly any shape and size. His unending attention to detail and constant drive to elicit the most musicianship as possible from the performers, combined with the outstanding clarity of the scores and parts he produces, provide a uniquely “easy” experience for his clients. His marching percussion ensemble arrangements in particular have been repeatedly praised for their musicality, and his concert band work has established a way for mature sounds to be enjoyed by even the smallest ensembles, where a lack of instrumentation usually demands easy repertoire.
Mike is proud to endorse Innovative Percussion sticks and mallets and Remo drumheads. Prior to his current doctoral pursuits, he earned a Master of Arts in Percussion Performance from the University of Iowa, and both a Bachelor of Music in Percussion Performance and a Bachelor of Music Education in Instrumental Music Education from Florida State University. His primary teachers include Dr. John Parks, Dr. Dan Moore, James Dreier, Lee Beddis, Dr. Brian Tinkel, Dr. William Fredrickson, and Dr. Clifford Madsen. Mike resides in Tallahassee, FL with his beautiful wife Jeri, their three amazing sons Sean, Joel, and Fitz, and their wonderfully unique chocolate lab/pit bull mix Betty Frances.
