He started playing the horn at an early age and attended the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. “For me, when I found the French horn, all I knew was that I loved it and wanted more,” he says. For Cooper, playing is a ritual. Every day, before anything else, he plays his horn.

Mark Almond joins the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as principal horn, having previously worked as associate principal horn of the San Francisco Symphony, co-principal horn of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and third horn of the Philharmonia Orchestra, London.