Ton Koopman conducts the Karajan Academy

“Bach’s music is never boring. It’s always brilliant, always surprising, always demanding,” says Ton Koopman. “Never forgetting what the spirit of the music is, that it’s church music, that the music has a message – I’ve always found that incredibly beautiful.” Koopman, the president of the Leipzig Bach Archive Foundation, is one of the world’s leading advocates of historically informed performance practice. He established his first Baroque orchestra, Musica Antiqua Amsterdam, at the age of 25. In 1979, he founded the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, followed in 1992 by the Amsterdam Baroque Choir, both of which still perform internationally today. The trained organist and harpsichordist, who received the Prix d’Excellence for both instruments, never actually wanted to become a conductor. That is probably why he is convinced that “as a conductor you really have to be primus inter pares. The first to try to make music together with colleagues and friends. With this approach, music is harmony.” In 1983, he stepped in for the ill Nikolaus Harnoncourt to conduct Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Since then, he has appeared with leading orchestras throughout the world at concert halls such as the Musikverein and the Konzerthaus in Vienna, London’s Royal Albert Hall, Carnegie Hall in New York and the Philharmonie Berlin.