Tom Freer

Tom Freer is Assistant Principal Timpanist and Section Percussion with The Cleveland Orchestra since 1991.

Prior to his position in Cleveland, Tom served as Principal Timpanist with the Fort Wayne Philharmonic, Principal Timpanist with The Alabama Symphony and Principal Percussion/ Assistant Timpani with the Norrkoping Symphony in Norrkoping, Sweden. He is a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music where he was the last timpani student accepted by Cloyd E. Duff and has also studied with Richard Weiner, Paul Yancich, Jim Atwood and Mario Gaetano. An active artist and clinician for Adams, Pearl, Zildjian Cymbals and Freer Percussion Products, Tom has done clinics and masterclasses throughout the United States and Europe including Yale University, Peabody Conservatory, Royal Stockholm Conservatory, Chosen Vale and of course the Duff Masterclass which is the longest running timpani seminar in history now in its 31st year. Tom has also been awarded two patents on percussion instrument designs, is the owner of Freer Percussion Products, and is head of the percussion department at Cleveland State University where his students have achieved considerable success as orchestral timpanists and percussionists over the past twenty years. He has recorded extensively and toured with some of the greatest conductors of our time, all over the world. Tom can be heard on over twenty Cleveland Orchestra recordings on the London/Decca and Deutsche Grammophon labels.