A transformative force in historically informed performance Ton Koopman is renowned as a conductor harpsichordist and organist. In 1979 aged 35 he founded the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra in the city where he had studied with the great Dutch harpsichordist Gustav Leonhardt. Drawing on an international pool of players the ensemble soon gained a reputation for flexibility colour and expressivity as it explored the music of such composers as the Bach family Handel Telemann and Buxtehude.