The principal guest conductor of the Hong Kong Sinfonietta since 2015, Christoph Poppen has had a pivotal role in guiding its artistic direction. In demand among orchestras the world over as a guest conductor, he is also currently principal conductor of the Cologne Chamber Orchestra, as well as artistic director of the Marvão International Music Festival in Portugal, which he founded in 2014.

Poppen is also a celebrated violinist, who formed the award-winning German foursome the Cherubini Quartet in 1978. He worked as conductor of the Detmold Chamber Orchestra and then the Munich Chamber Orchestra from 1989-2006; while in 2006 he was appointed conductor of the Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra, which the following year became part of the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, where he fulfilled the same role until 2011.

In addition, Poppen has been a professor of violin and chamber music for a number of leading German music schools, including the Hochschule für Musik Detmold, Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin and the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich.

(Photo: Takao Komaru)