Born in 1944 in Zwolle (the Netherlands), Ton Koopman studied organ and harpsichord at the Sweelinck Conservatorium in Amsterdam and musicology at the University of Amsterdam. He was awarded the Prix d'Excellence on two occasions for his performances on organ and harpsichord. He founded the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra in 1979, followed by the Amsterdam Baroque Choir in 1993. Both ensembles have enjoyed major international success since 1993 under the combined name of Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir.

Ton Koopman is a frequently invited guest conductor with many major international symphony orchestras, taught harpsichord until recently at the Koninklijk Conservatorium in The Hague and is an emeritus professor at the University of Leiden. Awards for his work over the years have included the VSCD Klassieke Muziekprijs (2004), the Bach-Medaille of the City of Leipzig (2006), the Lübeck Buxtehude Preise (2012), the Edison Klassiek Publieksprijs (2017) and Honorary Citizenship of the Municipality of Zwolle (2024). He has also been made an honorary professor at the Musikhochschule Lübeck and the Anton Bruckner Privatuniversität in Linz, is president of the Internationale Dieterich Buxtehude Gesellschaft, artistic director of the French music festival Itinéraire Baroque and has been president of the Bach-Archiv Leipzig since 2019. He was appointed as an Honorary Member of the Allgemeine Musikgesellschaft Zurich in 2024. His enormous library, containing thousands of valuable books, letters and scores, found a new home on 2020 at the Orpheus Instituut in Ghent, where the collection can be accessed by a new generation of musicians and academic researchers.