Kirk Georgia has been the principal timpanist of FSO since 2009. The Professional Studies program at the Cleveland Institute of Music brought him to Northeast Ohio to study with Paul Yancich and the late Richard Weiner. Along with the FSO principal timpani chair, Kirk is also principal timpanist with the Cleveland Opera Theater, which has put on critically acclaimed mainstage productions of Puccini’s Tosca, La Boheme, Madame Butterfly, Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro, and Andre Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire, to name a few. 

Also an accomplished drumset player, Mr. Georgia has been active in the Akron music scene, involved with The Cabaret Project and the Millennial Theatre Project, with whom he has performed Songs for a New World and the Pulitzer prize-winning Next To Normal. He can also be heard on the Ohio Philharmonic Orchestra recording of the Grieg Piano Concerto featuring Antonio Pompa-Baldi, which can be found on Spotify, and is available on the Centaur label.