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Chapter 1: Who is David Cooper and what is his connection to classical music?
Smart, sharp, and slightly unhinged.
Late Night's Fresh Perspective. The Last Show with David Cooper. Have you ever tried to make a living blowing into 13 feet of coiled metal? Well, David Cooper does. And I'm not talking about myself. I'm talking about French horn player David Cooper, who performs classical music at the highest level. And we're here to talk about pressure, perseverance, and the unforgiving stage of classical music.
We're also just looking for people named David Cooper on the show. The man has played with the Victoria Symphony in Canada, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He currently plays with the L.A. Philharmonic. These are just like not that well-known symphonies, so he's really not that big a deal. David, welcome to the show. I'm excited to have you. Hey, thank you so much, David.
Great to be here. I'm doing this now. We're reaching out to other David Coopers. We've had some interesting ones on the show, but I did this like five years ago, and you and I met then, and we've remained friends, which I love. Oh, man. Yeah, there can never be too many David Coopers.
I found you on the show talking about your journey, and I'm like, what is a French horn player going to have to say about his journey? I was shocked and delighted. Your story is one of like perseverance and staying with your craft and dealing with adversity. And I want to talk to you a little bit about your path and your history and how you ended up like a French horn player for the L.A.
Philharmonic. Oh, man, I'd love to. Yeah, ask away. So what got you interested in classical music in the first place as a young person? Well, it was always on our radio when I was growing up. I think the classical radio station, the public radio was like really instrumental in me hearing a wide range and spectrum of classical music and also having a mom that was clued into it.
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Chapter 2: What challenges do classical musicians face on stage?
So my mom played flute and piano and her mom played, so my grandma played French horn. My uncle played French horn. And my mom wanted to play French horn, but she was four foot tense or she wasn't allowed to. They said, you're too short. And then if you know any short people, she was like, no, I'm not. So she's sitting there and she's being dominated by a horn.
Like she's like barely can hold the thing. Yeah. I was just too big for her. Like, you know, she wore size four kids shoes. She used to buy her shoes at like Stride right in the mall, you know, like... Was music a way to kind of connect with your family and feel like you had a sense of community growing up?
Oh, you know, I think more than that, it was just my mom had an enthusiasm about Costco music and enthusiasm for horn. And so whenever she would hear the horn on the radio station, she'd be like, hey, listen to my horn, the horn. And like, as soon as I was old enough to kind of be like, hey, what do you mean the horn? Like... Oh, yeah, the horn.
And as soon as I understood what sound the horn made, I was like, that is the greatest sound in the orchestra. I'm going to play that. And I remember from second grade, I was like, so this must have been pre-second grade. I must have been, I don't know, five, six, seven, somewhere in there.
And then in second grade, there was a Christmas tree that had a French horn ornament, like an actual kind of like hunting horn kind of deal, like in the farmer's market near our house. And so I bought this little tube with like a little tiny mouthpiece soldered onto it that I would go around making sounds on. You know that solder has lead in it, but keep going.
Yeah, but anyway, so yeah, that was my first experience making a sound on a French horn. It was, you know, just kind of like a Christmas ornament toy. But then my brother played trumpet. And as soon as I was old enough, I got a French horn. And the first sound I made on the horn was at my grandma's house.
I went over to her house, she cleaned up a mouthpiece where she polished it up and she put it in the horn and I made my first sound and I was just like, this is awesome. What people don't know is if you don't clean mouthpieces, they can get rank, they can get smelly. So I'm glad you- No, they tarnish. It's like silver and they turn black.
Don't let me put words in your mouth, but I've always been jealous of you because it seems to me and correct me if I'm wrong. This is your story, not mine. You found like your medium, your purpose, your what your craft. You found it at such a young age. And I'm not lucky like you. I found radio when I was like 28.
And the first time I had a mic in my mouth and we were live on the radio near my mouth, it wasn't in my mouth. Nothing weird like that. I was like, wow, you can just do this. Like I found my medium very late in life. Wow. And not everyone gets lucky like that. But I think that's one of the things I can really relate to you about is that we both have a passion for what we do. Sure.
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Chapter 3: How did David Cooper become a French horn player for the LA Philharmonic?
And so I created a vision board that was... the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Hall and what it looked like from the stage, like looking out at the audience and then what it looked like from the audience looking at the shell. And then underneath, I wrote David Cooper, Principal Horm, Chicago Symphony Orchestra. And I did that because I didn't feel like I was...
at the level to be Principal Horn of the Chicago Symphony. But if I looked at that poster and I read it every day, maybe I'd believe it. And something strange happened. I mean, like every time I look at it, it would give me a reason to get out of bed because I said, man, I'm not there yet, but I want to be.
And then when I would look at this poster, I would also say like, man, I really want to be there. This is like my reason for practicing and for trying to do all the hard stuff that I really want to do.
and yeah after i don't know how many years of looking at that poster i think six years of looking at that poster i ended up winning principal horn the chicago symphony but the story wasn't as simple as that you auditioned like a few years they said no to you a few times you went and did a stint what in like berlin or something yeah berlin yeah yeah and i just love that you had this poster you had this this image clear image of your mind in your mind of the job you wanted you didn't let an audition that didn't go well
you know, give you, give you trouble or get depressed about yourself. You kept trying, you know, you told yourself you were going to get that job and then you did. And I think around the time I met you was when you first landed the job. And that's why I was so amazed with what you were saying and why I felt your story was such a powerful one in terms of resilience.
As far as orchestras go and brass sections go, I think the Chicago Symphony was typically the best brass section. Every orchestra is known for their thing. She's a brassy girl. Boston's known to be a really subtle and French traditional orchestra. They had a French music director.
oh i i want to know about orchestra stereotypes from cities so i grew up in toronto what's that's orchestra what is it the toronto symphony orchestra the tso i think we called it what's the stereotype there negative and positive i mean the so we have typically five big major orchestras um in the united states new york boston philadelphia cleveland and chicago
And so those are the ones that we kind of grew up knowing a little bit more. But I mean, Toronto is an amazing orchestra. I mean, Vancouver is an amazing orchestra. Vancouver is like the New York Philharmonic of the West Coast. Oh, so I'm Canadian. So you're saying Vancouver outdoes Toronto there.
Well, no, I mean, Toronto is also like, you know, the other big city and, you know, actually Ottawa, believe it or not, has an amazing orchestra. But, you know, for me, my favorite Canadian orchestra happens to be Montreal. Oh. You know, Montreal, they had all these recordings of the French stuff back in the 80s with Charles Dutoit. And anytime that you want to like hear like,
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Chapter 4: What role does family play in a musician's journey?
So like if you imagine your orchestra as like, you know, a baseball team and then your horn section as like, you know, the pitching staff, the bullpen, the principal horn would be like, you know, the opener, right? Like your main... You're the closer. Yeah. Yeah.
You know, what I do is I save, I take some of the taxing stuff and my job is to play the first half of the concert so that the principal French horn can have, you know, absolute muscle control and dexterity and finesse because blowing into 18 feet of tubing. This is sounding erotic. This is sounding sexy. Finesse, blowing. I mean, come on.
You know, and a one inch mouthpiece with a one centimeter opening, right? Like it's a tiny, like my bore is I think four millimeters, four and a half millimeters, right? So I'm blowing all this air through four millimeters of a hole and then it goes through 18 feet of tubing.
Do you know how many inappropriate words you've used that I could latch on for a cheap joke in the last minute where I haven't? You should be impressed with me. Okay. Okay, David Cooper is the man's name who I'm here with. We're mostly having him on the show because he has the same name as me, but his insight into the world of classical music is what we're really getting at.
Before the break, we talked about what an average party of a bunch of classical musicians would be like. Are there any stereotypes? Like, are the violinists, they're supposed to be the most arrogant, right? Because they get all the press. They're like the most prestigious section, at least ostensibly. What are the parties like? What are the social functions like? What goes on? Oh, man. Um...
The first time I really encountered a classical music party was coming back from Duncan. We would take a bus up to Duncan in Victoria and then we would play in this arena that had like this giant hockey stick and they would put like the hockey boards that went around the hockey rink, the ice rink, right behind the horn section because otherwise we'd be blowing into a velvet curtain.
And so we would call it the giant hockey stick. And so on the way back, we'd go over the Malahat and we would drink beer from the cooler in the bus. And it was just normal people hanging out after work. It's just people enjoying a beer and drinking. I think when you get people who are really type A, right?
We're obviously super detail-oriented, super competitive, and then you put us all together in one room. We're going to be pretty intense, but I think we're also pretty fun. We really like music. We really are caring. We're good listeners. You have to be a good listener to... I mean, the stories are what I live for.
I live for getting to talk to older musicians and hearing what it was like back in the day, what it was like to work with this conductor, what it was like to play this piece of music or go on this tour. What are the wild stories that you might get told at a party with a bunch of classical musicians? You know, I think the biggest one would be like if someone didn't show up on time. Right.
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