From bowings to nerves: David Coucheron on life as the Atlanta Symphony’s first-seat violinist

Caption

David Coucheron

Credit: Atlanta Symphony Orchestra

David Coucheron was just 25 when he landed the position of concertmaster of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Now, 15 years on, he joins GPB’s Sarah Zaslaw to talk about what a concertmaster does, including the ups and downs of bowings; the joy of performing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with his colleagues (weather permitting); his other musical activities from Singapore to his native Norway; and how he deals with nerves. Feeling nervous on stage isn’t a negative thing, in his view. David’s Vivaldi performance airs April 24 through April 27 and the Beethoven program July 3 through July 6 on The ASO on GPB.

Interview highlights

Edited for length and clarity.

On what it means to be a concertmaster

I am first and foremost the leader of the first violin section. But I also consider myself representative for the orchestra. So when the conductor or soloist shakes my hand before or after a concert, I take it as I am representing the orchestra. And doing bowings — if you’ve been to a concert, you can see we do our bows in synchronization up and down, and that is coordinated. It takes months of coordination before the first rehearsal, and start that process.

More on bowings

It’s a very musical thing. There are a million different ways of doing bowings, and it’s a big part of my job and I really like it, but it’s very nerdy. I have to look at the score and different pieces. Everything is different depending on the conductor that we have. That can be interesting when we get a new conductor trying new, different ways. [Sometimes it changes] in rehearsal, and I am the person that guides that process. Ideally a conductor would say, “I would like to achieve this,” and then I am the man on the ground that says, “Well, this is what we have to do if you want to achieve that.”  Phrasing-wise, bowings make a really big difference. There’s no exact science to it. I try to only change the bowing from the wish of the composer when it’s absolutely necessary. Also, if you have a very resonant hall, you will have a different bowing structure.

On his background

I started playing violin when I was 3. From 10 to 15 I flew and traveled [from Oslo] to Germany every two weeks and had lessons in Cologne, and in Switzerland in Bern; 15 to 20 I spent at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. I got my bachelor’s there with the very famous and fantastic violinist Aaron Rosand, and I went on to Juilliard to get my master’s. And then I spent a year in London — I played in a string quartet professionally — and it was during that year I came to Atlanta and played with the Atlanta Symphony for the first time.

On starting his Atlanta Symphony position young

I was 25 when I started here, and I had very little experience being concertmaster. So I went out to everyone asking what can I do? There were people that had so much more experience in the orchestra than I did, and I try to take advantage of that as much as possible by asking for advice. I love playing here, and I love my colleagues, and I love this orchestra.

On music director Nathalie Stutzmann

I really love making music with her. She’s very inspiring. I think the concerts are really exciting, and I think the audience responds. The sold-out concerts that we have kind of speaks for itself.

On performing and leading Vivaldi’s Four Seasons

They’re just amazing pieces. I played them for years and I still love every measure of them. It’s incredible that music written so long ago is still so accurate, you know, even with the climate change [laughs]. It's deceptively difficult. If the audience comes and doesn’t notice that it’s difficult, it’s a good sign. But to play it in tune, to play rhythmically, to play the phrasings that we have been working on, to really get that together — I mean, it’s without a conductor, the whole concert, so it teaches us to listen and to play together.

On the Coucheron siblings’ summer chamber music festival

It lasts for about a week, and it gives me a great opportunity to play with Norwegian musicians along with a select few people from the United States. We play different places around where the museums are, a little bit outside of Oslo, it’s called at Bygdøy. We can get there by boat or by bus. The last few years we’ve been playing at the Maritime Museum. We have boats in the main hall, and the stage and where people are sitting are surrounded by small boats. That’s why we named the festival Kon-Tiki. [See the festival website here and the story of its namesake expedition here.]

On whether he ever gets nervous

Yes, of course. I don’t think being nervous is a negative thing. I try to think of it as a positive part of performing, because it means that you care about what you do and you care about your performance. I try to think of it from the point of view that people are coming to this concert to hear us play or hear me play, and what they want to do is have a great experience, and I’m there to do that, and change the focus from being worried about making a mistake to remember why we are there and what we are doing. There are times it’s extremely demanding to sit there and play solos and you have, like, Yo-Yo Ma or Lang Lang come in, and play solos with them on the stage with very little rehearsal. It is nerve-wracking. That’s understandable. But music is a lovely part of life and it’s supposed to be enjoyable — just to remind ourselves of that helps me a lot. But yes, it is a very pressure-cooker-type job.