​From the outset of his conducting career, the name of Christoph Poppen has been internationally recognised and synonymous for innovative and original programming and commitment across all genres of classical music. A frequent guest conductor, he has worked with orchestras such as Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Staatskapelle Dresden, Bamberger Symphoniker, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Wiener Symphoniker, Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, New Japan Philharmonic, and also enjoys longstanding artistic relationships with important orchestras such as Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Residentie Orchestra, Netherlands Philharmonic, KBS Symphony Orchestra, to name just a few. 

In the 2023/24 season, Christoph Poppen continues his highly successful collaborations with the Kölner Kammerorchester in his role as Principal Conductor, as Principal Guest Conductor of Israel Chamber Orchestra and as newly appointed Music Director of Hong Kong Sinfonietta. Other highlights include an engagement at InClassica Music Festival Dubai with Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra and Turku Philharmonic Orchestra, a return visit to Münchener Kammerorchester where he has been Music Director from 1995-2006, and the continuation of his recorded cycle of the complete Mozart Masses with Kölner Kammerorchester for Naxos.

Under his artistic leadership the Festival Internacional de Música de Marvão (Portugal) has grown to become a highly successful and award-winning musical happening featuring soloists such as Jörg Widmann, Augustin Hadelich, Javier Perianes and Clara-Jumi Kang. Between 2020 and 2022 he was also Artistic Director of the Classic Revolution Festival in Seoul, South Korea, for which he curated highly inventive programmes and united many of the best international artists from Korea and the West, for performances exclusively at the Lotte Concert Hall.

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 through 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 Marvão/Portugal, and since the 2021/22 academic year, Chair Professor of Violin at the prestigious Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid.

Following the example of Lucerne, Switzerland, Tongyeong Festival Orchestra (TFO) was created to enhance the musical spectrum of the Tongyeong International Music Festival, and to serve as an artistic ambassador for Tongyeong City, a UNESCO Creative City of Music. Since its first edition in 2002, the festival has been striving to assemble outstanding musicians to build its own “Ensemble TIMF” - specialized in contemporary music. Together with members of Munich Chamber Orchestra and other musicians from abroad, conductor Alexander Liebreich formed the first “Tongyeong Festival Orchestra” in 2011. Ever since, the orchestra has been assembled annually for performances in Tongyeong, Korea and overseas. 

Among the Festival Orchestra musicians are members of the Munich Philharmonic, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Zurich Opera, Kremerata Baltica, National Symphony Orchestra Washington, DC, Sydney Symphony, Melbourne Symphony, and many others.

Tongyeong Festival Orchestra regularly works with conductors such as Heinz Holliger, Christoph Poppen, Michael Sanderling, Christoph Eschenbach, Stefan Soltesz, Ken-David Masur, Stefan Asbury, Alexander Liebreich, Sascha Goetzel, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Markus Stenz, Dalia Stasevska and David Robertson.

In 2017, the orchestra presented its first opera performance with Isang Yun's ‹Dream of Liu Tung›. Later in the year, the orchestra went on a European tour, presenting music by Yun and Ravel in Germany, Austria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. In 2015 and 2018, Tongyeong Festival Orchestra partnered with Hong Kong Sinfonietta and Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa (Japan). Musicians from Korea, Japan, and China came together for an Asian tour, forming a musical bridge between the three countries. In 2019, the orchestra performed Richard Wagner's opera ‹Walküre› at the Tongyeong International Music Festival and Seong-Jin Cho & Friends Festival with Pianist Seong-Jin Cho. In 2023, the Royal Northern Sinfonia from the UK participated as members of TFO, and the orchestra gave the Asian premiere of Unsuk Chin's Violin Concerto No. 2 "Shards of Silence" and Isang Yun's Symphonic Scene at the Tongyeong International Music Festival 2023.