Tom Freer
Tom Freer is Assistant Principal Timpanist and Section Percussion with The Cleveland Orchestra since 1991.
Prior to joining Cleveland, Tom held positions as Principal Timpanist with the Fort Wayne Philharmonic and The Alabama Symphony, as well as Principal Percussion / Assistant Timpani with the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra in Sweden. He is a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music and was the last timpani student accepted by Cloyd E. Duff. He 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 given clinics and masterclasses throughout the United States and Europe, including at Yale University, Peabody Conservatory, Royal Stockholm Conservatory, Chosen Vale and the legendary Duff Masterclass, the longest-running timpani seminar in history, now in its 31st year.
Tom holds two patents for percussion instrument designs, is the owner of Freer Percussion Products and serves as head of the percussion department at Cleveland State University, where his students have gone on to major success as orchestral timpanists and percussionists over the past two decades.
He has recorded extensively and toured the world with some of the greatest conductors of our time. Tom can be heard on more than twenty Cleveland Orchestra recordings on the London/Decca and Deutsche Grammophon labels.
