symphony spotlight
Meet David Cervantes
conroe symphony French Horn
The Language of the Soul
Meet David Cervantes — French hornist, metal drummer, devoted dad, and self-described “huge nerd.”
David Cervantes didn’t choose the French horn. He rescued it — and its very relieved band director.
A trumpet player since sixth grade, David was sitting in class in tenth grade when a band director came in with a plea.
“He said, ‘We have one French horn and would like more. Anyone who volunteers to switch will move up to the second-best band, get a month of free lessons, and the school will loan them an instrument.'”
Silence. Nobody moved. “After about two minutes,” David remembers, “I felt kinda bad for the guy, so I raised my hand and volunteered.”
That reluctant act of kindness turned into a lifelong love affair with one of the orchestra’s most notoriously difficult instruments, and three seasons ago, a seat in the Conroe Symphony Orchestra’s horn section.
Ask him what he loves about playing here, and it’s the bar:
“The skill level of everyone involved, the difficulty of the music we play, and the type of music we play.”
-David Cervantes
His favorite CSO memory is a recent one, and it’s a full-circle moment. “Definitely the most recent Disney concert. I grew up watching a lot of those movies, and playing the music from them was literally a dream come true. Plus it was great having my daughter in the audience to experience that moment.”
Family comes first for David, a fact he’ll tell you before anything else. He and his wife, Kaitlyn, a former daycare teacher turned full-time mom, have two children: Gracelynn, starting pre-K this year and, in David’s words, “waaaaaaaay too smart for her own good already,” and David Glynn, just six weeks old at the time he wrote this. (Two cats, Cheddar and Swiss, round out the household: one impossibly needy, the other impressively anti-social.)
Second, comes being “a huge nerd”! David can be found often playing Magic: The Gathering with friends when he can find the time, gaming on a custom-built PC, and writing his own musical compositions. By day, he’s an access control, automation, and security technician, installing camera and security systems. And in a fact almost no one would guess from the horn section: David plays drums for a metal and hard-rock band called Falsify.
His musical taste runs deep and wide. His favorite composer is Stravinsky (“The Firebird Suite is amazing, but I just love his style”), his favorite era is the Romantic period, and his current favorite piece to play is “The Impossible Dream” from Man of La Mancha.
The person who first opened that world to him was his grandmother.
“When I was a kid, I remember her singing to me in an almost operatic voice, and she would talk about music and symphony with me,” David says. “When I picked up the trumpet, she was always so thrilled to come to my shows, she enjoyed my music more than anyone. To this day, I wish I could share with her all the things I’ve done with the Conroe Symphony. She would be over the moon.”
-David Cervantes
As for advice to young musicians, David offers the most honest — and most affectionate — endorsement the French horn may have ever received: “The French horn is a terrible instrument. It’s incredibly difficult to play, even harder to master, and if you don’t give it everything, you’ll sound like a dying frog being mauled by a dog.” A beat, then: “10/10. It’s an amazing instrument, and I couldn’t live without it.”
Which brings us to the thing David actually can’t live without — music itself — and the words he left us with, which we couldn’t have said better:
Words and letters are the language of the body and mind. Music is the language of the soul. It says what words cannot and brings us together in ways that transcend language.
-David Cervantes
David, Off The Stage
Fact You May Not Know
Falsify.
Favorite Composer
Stravinsky
The firebird suite is amazing but I just love his style.
current favorite
The impossible dream from the musical Man of La Mancha.
Favorite Music Era
The romantic period
What He Can't Live Without
Music
(Besides his family)
Come Hear David For Yourself
“The musicians in the orchestra must have music in their hearts to make such a sacrifice to come to rehearsals after their day jobs. They just have music-making as part of their lives.”
— Gary Liebst, Music Director
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