Cook says it took her a while to adjust to being a pit musician; she draws energy from playing directly in front of an audience. Yet she’s learned much from her work in the opera orchestra. “You have a front-row seat and get to hear all these world-class singers, and the violists can see the stage,” she says, inadvertently confirming those jokes about violists never looking at the conductor. “You can learn a lot about phrasing from listening to singers. After hearing them night after night, you gradually begin to approach your own practice in a different way because you’re thinking about how a vocalist might get a much longer phrase in this music, instead of just thinking about how you can bow it in a certain way.”

In what spare time she has, Cook not only golfs, but swims avidly. She used to be a competitive badminton player, but gave that up because she couldn’t find good partners on tour. “I’ve always done a lot of sport,” she says. “A lot of musicians spend too much time in the practice room with artificial light; it’s great to be out playing in the fresh air.”

She also reads a lot of Scottish novels (“It’s a cure for my homesickness”), but what Cook loves most is playing music, any kind of music. “It doesn’t matter to me if it’s playing in a symphony orchestra or the opera orchestra or some chamber-music group or solo or our trio,” she says. “The opportunity to play in front of an audience is what I live for.”