Douglas Kirk studied musicology at The University of Texas at Austin and McGill University (Montréal, Canada), and early music performance practice at the Royal Conservatorium of Music in The Hague, Holland. He is a well-known cornettist and shawm player, and has concertized widely throughout North America and Europe with such groups as the Studio de Musique Ancienne de Montréal, the Boston Camerata, the Boston Shawm and Sackbut Ensemble, the Taverner Consort of London, Les Sonneurs (Montréal), the Toronto Consort, Tafelmusik, and the Ensemble Claude Gervaise.

He can be heard on numerous recordings of seventeenth century Venetian, Spanish, and German music with such ensembles as the Taverner Consort of London directed by Andrew Parrott, the Gabrieli Consort of London directed by Paul McCreesh, the Boston Camerata under Joel Cohen, and the Studio de Musique Ancienne de Montréal directed by Christopher Jackson. Dr. Kirk directs large-scale early music performance projects at McGill University, where he also teaches cornetto and other early wind instruments. He lectures on medieval and Renaissance music at Concordia University.