David Cooper is a third generation French horn player having both his uncle and grandmother as professional 
horn players in the Lansing Symphony. He began playing with Michigan State University ensembles when only 15 and was in the top MSU ensemble at age 16.
horn players in the Lansing Symphony. He began playing with Michigan State University ensembles when only 15 and was in the top MSU ensemble at age 16.While studying at the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music, Cooper was awarded a Tanglewood Fellowship, and since 2012 spent three consecutive summers at Marlboro Music festival in Vermont. In 2013 Cooper won Principal Horn of the National Symphony in Washington D.C. but was soon after appointed Principal Horn of the Dallas Symphony in May of 2013. He has been with the Dallas Symphony since 2011, initially as 3rd horn. In December 2016, Cooper won the position of solo horn with the Berlin Philharmonic and will join the orchestra for the 2017-2018 season.
Cooper started his career as acting Principal Horn with the Victoria Symphony in British Columbia and Associate Principal Horn of the Fort Worth Symphony. He has been guest Principal Horn of the London Symphony Orchestra, musician and is Music Director of the Avant Chamber Ballet in Dallas, TX.
"This was technique of astonishing agility and breath control, allied to sophisticated musicality. Cooper could dispatch flourishes with gleaming tone, then string out lyric lines with the creamiest legato, every phrase elegantly shaped and directed. Obviously enjoying himself, he made it all seem utterly effortless - on a notoriously cranky instrument." DALLAS NEWS