Christoph Poppen

Since the beginning of his career as an orchestral conductor, Christoph Poppen has gained international fame for his innovative and original programming and his commitment to contemporary music.
A frequent guest conductor, he has performed with the German Symphony Orchestra of Berlin, the Saxon State Orchestra of Dresden, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra, the Detroit and Indianapolis Symphony Orchestras, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra, the New Japan Philharmonic, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, the Salzburg Camerata, as well as at the Venice Biennale.
In the 2019-20 season, Christoph Poppen collaborated with the Cologne Chamber Orchestra as principal conductor and as principal guest conductor of the Hong Kong Sinfonietta. Also noteworthy are his collaborations with the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra and the Welsh National Opera, among others. He has also worked with major orchestras such as the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, the Residentie Orchestra of The Hague, the Netherlands Philharmonic, the Israel Chamber Orchestra, the German Radio Philharmonic Orchestra Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern and the Athens State Orchestra.
As an opera conductor, he successfully led a production of The Abduction from the Seraglio at the Aalto Theatre in Essen, as well as performances of Gluck’s Iphigenia in Aulis at the Staatsoper Stuttgart. In 2016 he returned to the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa for a production of Don Giovanni. He conducted performances of The Pearl Fishers at the Frankfurt Opera – which earned him a new invitation to conduct The Magic Flute – and created the new production of Sing For Me, Death by composer Claude Vivier with the RuhrTriennale company of Gelsenkirchen. In 2017 he conducted Weber’s Oberon in concert version at the Cologne Opera.
Over the years, Christoph Poppen has held a number of important conducting positions in Germany. Between 1995 and 2006, he was artistic director of the Munich Chamber Orchestra, where he established the ensemble’s new profile in a short period of time. His characteristic programmes, based on a contrast of classical and contemporary music with numerous commissioned works, were a great success. In August 2006, he was appointed music director of the Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra, and from 2007 to 2011 he was the music director of the newly formed German Radio Philharmonic Orchestra Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern.
Under his artistic direction, the Marvão International Music Festival (Portugal) has grown into a highly successful musical event that has received numerous awards and features soloists such as Jörg Widmann, Augustin Hadelich, Javier Perianes and Clara-Jumi Kang.
Christoph Poppen was appointed professor of violin and chamber music at the Detmold Academy of Music, and later at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin, of which he was president from 1996 to 2000. Between 2001 and 2005, Christoph Poppen was artistic director of the renowned ARD International Music Competition. Since 2003, Christoph Poppen has been professor of violin and chamber music at the Munich Academy of Music and Theatre. In 2019, he founded the International Academy of Music, Arts and Sciences of Marvão/Portugal.
Since the 2021-2022 academic year, he has been professor of the Telefónica Violin Chair at the Reina Sofía School of Music in Madrid.