He studied the violin with Kurt Schäffer at the Robert Schumann Hochschule, later with Oscar Shumsky, Nathan Milstein, and Joseph Gingold.
In collaboration with ECM he recorded with the orchestra contemporary music of composers such as Karl Amadeus Hartmann, Tigran Mansurian, Anton Webern, Sofia Gubaidulina, Giacinto Scelsi, Valentin Silvestrov and Barry Guy.
The recording was described as ... one of those increasingly rare things – a moving and intelligently programmed disc that is effective from beginning to end.
In 2007 he conducted in the Herkulessaal the premiere of Wilhelm Killmayer's Dithyramben for orchestra with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks.
[5] In 2012–13, Poppen taught at the DO School in Hamburg as part of a Fellowship program for young social entrepreneurs.