Our Current Director of Bands

Since July 2019, Lisa M. Foltz has served as Director of Bands at Tallahassee State College (“TSC”), where she conducts Capital City Band of TSC and TSC Jazz Band. Prior to this, she enjoyed serving as Associate Conductor (August 2017-July 2019) and as Guest Conductor (January-July 2017) of Capital City Band of TSC alongside mentor and friend Michael Grant.

Following several appearances as Guest Conductor for the Big Bend Community Orchestra “BBCO” at TCC (2011-2013), Maestra Foltz served as Associate/Assistant Conductor of the BBCO (2014-2017) and was the Conductor and Organizer of the BBCO Summer Reading Orchestras.  Maestra Foltz concurrently served on the BBCO’s Board of Directors as Publicity Chair and Educational Outreach Chair, organizing and running the BBCO’s annual Young Artist Competition (2014-2017).

Maestra Foltz holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music (organ and voice) from Jacksonville University, and a Master of Music degree in Choral Conducting from Florida State University. Post-graduation, she has completed extensive studies in orchestral, wind band, and choral conducting through additional coursework, masterclasses, workshops, institutes, and rehearsal observations, locally, nationally, and internationally.

A versatile and gifted conductor and performer known for engaging programming and for the sound she elicits from the ensembles she conducts, Maestra Foltz inspires musical excellence and fosters a welcoming atmosphere among ensemble musicians. Equally at home in the orchestral, choral, and wind band disciplines, Maestra Foltz has also served as Music Director and Conductor of Rose City Symphonic Band (Thomasville, GA), and as a Part-Time Elementary String-Orchestra Teacher for Leon County Schools, since 2012, and as Adjunct Professor of Voice at Baptist University of Florida since 2019. Additionally, from 2017 to 2022, Maestra Foltz was Music Director and Conductor of, and Mezzo-Soprano for, the Tallahassee Music Guild’s “Sing-Along Messiah” concerts; from 2017 to 2021, she served as Co-Conductor of Tallahassee Homeschool String Orchestra’s top-level ensemble “Arioso.”

Passionate about community engagement and educational outreach, Maestra Foltz has enjoyed collaborations with the Tallahassee Symphony through their “Link Up” concerts, Tallahassee Youth Orchestras, Florida State University Symphony Orchestra, Florida State University’s String Education Program, The Arts at Thomas University, and Thomas County Central High School. In 2019, Maestra Foltz was honored to be selected to present a session entitled, “From Recommendation to Reality: Designing Inspiring Community Collaborations” at Carnegie Hall’s Music Educators Workshop. In 2014, she was invited to be the inaugural speaker for the Tallahassee Youth Orchestras’ Parent and Educator Advisory Council’s guest-lecturer series, and she has twice had the opportunity to serve as a guest lecturer/panelist at Florida State University College of Music.

Active as an adjudicator and clinician, Maestra Foltz has served as an adjudicator for Florida Orchestra Association’s District I and District II/III Music Performance Assessments, for Florida All-State 11/12 Symphonic Orchestra seating auditions, for Florida Vocal Association, for Southeast Regional National Association of Teachers of Singing Auditions, and for young artist competitions and youth orchestra auditions. In 2019, she was invited to serve as an Honor Choir Clinician at Baptist College of Florida.

As a vocalist, Mrs. Foltz was selected to participate in the Carnegie Hall Professional Choral Workshops/Festival Chorus under Helmuth Rilling in 2007 and in 2009. During her fourteen-season tenure with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus and Chamber Chorus, Mrs. Foltz performed on Grammy-award-winning recordings and toured to Carnegie Hall for five subscription-series concerts, to Miami (FL), to Ojai (CA), Ravinia (Chicago, IL) and to Berlin for performances with the Berlin Philharmonic (2003, 2008, & 2009), and was often selected for small-ensemble roles in semi-staged operas (“La Boheme,” “Madama Butterfly,” “The Nightingale”) and for classical series works (Bach, Gandolfi, Theofanidis).

Mrs. Foltz was one of eighteen women hired by Deutsche Grammophon and by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra to appear in the opera chorus for the recording and performances of Osvoldo Golijov’s “Ainadamar” (2006 Grammy winner for “Best Opera Recording” and “Best Contemporary Classical Composition”). As part of the “Ainadamar” cast, Mrs. Foltz toured to the Ojai Festival (California) and to the Ravinia Festival (Chicago, IL) with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and to Symphony Hall in Birmingham, England and to Barbican Hall at the Barbican Centre in London, England for performances with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

Locally, Mrs. Foltz has been a soloist with the Tallahassee Community Chorus (Haydn’s “Lord Nelson Mass”), Tallahassee Music Guild (Handel’s “Messiah”), Tallahassee Bach Parley (Bach’s “Cantata 150”), and with the FSU Chamber Choir (Schnittke’s “Requiem,” Stravinsky’s “Les Noces,” Vaughan Williams’ “Mass in G Minor” and “Serenade to Music,” and Tallis’ “Spem in Alium” as the opening alto voice). At FSU, Mrs. Foltz also appeared as a bridesmaid in Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Trial by Jury.” In 2016, Mrs. Foltz premiered Robert Strobel’s song cycle, “Three Songs of the Librarian” a work written for her. A subsequent recording was aired on Hawaii Public Radio on July 3, 2016 (Movement III), with the full song cycle airing on HPR July 30, 2018. In 2020, Movement III was selected to be included in the first “New Music by Living Composers” series by Petrichor Records. Since 2014, Mrs. Foltz has performed as a featured vocalist for Tallahassee’s Thursday Night Music Club (jazz big band), a group for which she also serves as Assistant Music Director. In March 2024, Mrs. Foltz was the mezzo-soprano soloist for Pergolesi’s “Stabat Mater,” alongside colleagues Yuliia Billa (Soprano) and Viktor Billa (Organ).

Mrs. Foltz taught herself to play piano at a young age and became the pianist at her church at the age of fourteen. With over twenty years of experience as a church pianist/organist, she returned to playing in May 2019, as Organist at First Baptist Church of Tallahassee. She has also enjoyed playing violin with her home church’s orchestra and with FSU’s “Sinfonia,” and she cherishes friendships with many wonderful band colleagues she met while playing oboe for Tallahassee Winds during their 2013-2014 season and in FSU’s Summer Band for two summers.

Mrs. Foltz is a member of The International Conductors Guild, College Orchestra Directors Association, Florida Orchestra Association, Florida Music Education Association, National Association for Music Education, National Association of Teachers of Singing, Florida Band Association, Florida College Music Educators Association, and Mu Phi Epsilon – Atlanta Alumni Chapter, from which she is the recipient of the Outstanding Service Award and the 2015 Professional Development Grant. In 2010 she was awarded the Mu Phi Epsilon Foundation’s national “John and Mary Virginia Foncannon Conducting or Sacred Music Scholarship.”

Former Directors of the Capital City Band

Michael Grant became Director of Bands at Tallahassee Community College (the name of Tallahassee State College prior to July 1, 2024) in August 2015 and retired from the position in July 2019.   Prior to that, Maestro Grant was a career military band conductor, arranger, trumpet player and administrator.

EDUCATION

*Master of Music in Wind Band Conducting, Florida State University, 2000  (studied trumpet under Bryan Goff and Dr. Chris Moore)
*Master of Arts, Management, National University, La Jolla, CA
*Bachelor of Music, Arranging, Berklee College of Music, Boston, MA

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

• Associate Conductor of the U.S. Navy Band, Washington DC
• Director of the U.S. Naval Academy Band
• Dlrector/Bandmaster, Navy SEVENTH Fleet Band and Navy Band New Orleans
• Guest Conductor of the Tokyo symphony Orchestra in public concerts
• Guest conductor, Chinese Navy Band
• Adjunct Trumpet Instructor, Tulane University
• Faculty member of Tulane University Concert Band/Big Band/Brass Quintet
• Delgato Brass Quintet, New Orleans
• New Orleans Civic Orchestra

Charles (Chuck) Perego  became the director of bands at TCC In January, 2013 after serving as interim director in 2012.   He left the position in June 2015.

Gary Coates joined the TCC faculty to teach students in the jazz band program in 1994.  In the fall of 1996, he became director of bands at TCC.  During his tenure, Gary grew the jazz band to become an integral part of the TCC music program, maintained the Capital City Band’s strong tradition as a community service organization, and built a strong, supportive relationship with the Communications/Humanities Division and TCC administration.  Gary Coates holds the record as the longest-serving director of the Capital City Band: 16 years.

Gary Coates, Director 1996-2012

Dr. Paul Dyer was interim director for several months until Ken Williams, the new band director at Florida High and a graduate student at FSU, took over for the next two years (1993-1996).

Paul Dyer, Interim Director 1992-1993

                   

Dr. Ken Williams 1993-1996

Dr. Frank Brown, the Florida High band director, became the director of the Capital City Band in 1989 and served in that capacity until his retirement in 1992.

Dr. Jack Swartz, a retired FSU music professor was appointed to the faculty of TCC as band director in 1983. He helped formalize the band’s relationship with TCC, and the name of the band was changed to Capital City Band of Tallahassee Community College. 

Jack Swartz, Director 1983-1988

Dr. Fred Vorce, Florida Department of Education Music Consultant, was appointed director in 1975 and led the band until 1982.  

In 1971, the band moved to Tallahassee Community College campus and began operating independently under the auspices of the Humanities Department.  Charles Alley, a doctoral candidate in music at FSU, led the band from 1971 to 1974.

1970 Springtime Tallahassee -Jerry Duncan, Director

Emory Johnson led the band in Lloyd, Florida 1969

 Bill Richardson and the Tallahassee Community Band 1967

Donald Hartford was the first conductor of the Tallahassee Community Band.  The band’s first rehearsal were in the Cobb Middle School cafetorium, but moved to the fellowship hall of the First Christian Church on Bronough Street in downtown Tallahassee around 1967. During the late 60s, the band, had several different directors: Jerry Duncan, Rick Brown (now a retired band director, composer and arranger), Bill Richardson (former band director at Rickards High School), and Emory Johnson (a Tallahassee businessman).  Sara Carter served as President of the band, as well as interim director when needed.