KENNESAW, Ga. | Oct 3, 2018

"Where are your eyes? Are they on the conductor?"

Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Concertmaster David Coucheron poses the question to a group of attentive Kennesaw State music students who are arrayed in front of him practicing a difficult section of Brahms' Symphony No. 2 in D Major in preparation for the KSU Symphony Orchestra’s concert on Oct. 4.

This is their first instruction by Coucheron, who is the School of Music's Distinguished Artist in Residence for Orchestral Studies for the 2018-2019 academic year.

"You already know how to play the piece, now you need to follow the conductor."

His admonition comes halfway through a two-hour coaching session in a recital hall on the Kennesaw Campus, where the charismatic virtuoso is engaged in a good-natured repartee with the orchestra’s first violin section.

"His hearing sensitivity impressed me the most," said Lisa Kawamura, a first-year violin performance major from Atlanta. "There were nine of us playing the same music, and he was able to hear each one of us and locate where each sound was coming from. He was able to specifically help us improve our way of playing. His sense of detail made me feel a lot more aware of the placement of the beat, and that is only possible because of his highly trained ear."

Robert S. Godlewski
Photos by Lauren Kress