Christoph Poppen

Over the years, Christoph Poppen has held a number of significant Directorships in Germany. From 1995 to 2006, he was Artistic Director of the Münchener Kammerorchester. In August 2006, he was appointed Music Director of the Radio Symphony Orchestra Saarbrücken, and from 2007 until 2011 he was the Music Director of the newly formed Deutsche Radiophilharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern: thus, following the fusion of those two orchestras, he ensured that they grew to form a homogeneous artistic unit. In the 2022/23 season, Christoph Poppen continues his highly successful collaborations with the Kölner Kammerorchester in his role as Principal Conductor and as Principal Guest Conductor of both Hong Kong Sinfonietta and Israel Chamber Orchestra, respectively. He has been invited to perform as Guest Conductor with distinguished orchestras including the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Dresden Staatskapelle, the Bamberger Symphoniker, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Detroit and Indianapolis Symphony Orchestras, the Wiener Symphoniker, the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, and the Camerata Salzburg.
Christoph Poppen has been Professor of Violin and Chamber Music at the Hochschule für Musik in Detmold, and later at the Hanns Eisler Hochschule für Musik in Berlin, where he was President from 1996 through 2000. From 2001 to 2005, Christoph Poppen was Artistic Director of the renowned ARD International Music Competition.
Since 2003, he has held a post as professor for Violin and Chamber Music at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich. In 2019, he founded the International Academy for Music, Arts and Science in the Portuguese town of Marvão, where he had previously founded the Festival Internacional de Música, now a highly successful and award-winning annual musical event. Between 2020 and 2022 he was also Artistic Director of the Classic Revolution Festival in Seoul. Starting with the 2021/22 academic year, he has been appointed Chair Professor of Violin at the prestigious Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid. The year 2022 marked the third occasion upon which he conducted the Kölner Kammerorchester at the Ruhr Piano Festival.