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Once the world's most famous recorder player, today Frans Brüggen is considered among the foremost experts in the performance of eighteenth century music. He was born in Amsterdam and studied musicology at its university. At 21, he was appointed professor at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague and later held a position as Erasmus professor at Harvard University and Regents professor at the University of Berkeley. As Luciano Berio wrote, he is "a musician who is not an archeologist but a great artist".

In 1981 he founded the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, which consists of some sixty members from 19 different countries. Three times a year the orchestra assembles to go on tour. The musicians, who are all specialists in eighteenth and nineteenth century music, play on period instruments, or on contemporary copies. The main artistic objective of the orchestra has become perfoming and recording classical works by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven as well as other composers of the 18th and 19th centuries in accordance with the musical tradition of the period.The wide-ranging repertoire this orchestra has recorded for Philips Classics includes works by Purcell, Bach, Rameau, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert & Mendelssohn. Many of their recordings have received international awards. The orchestra is held in highest esteem by ensambles playing historical instruments.

His conducting activities in recent years have included engagements with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Hamburg Philharmonic, the Oslo Philharmonic, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tonhalle Orchestra in Zürich, the Stockholm Philharmonic and the English Chamber Orchestra.

In August 1991, Brüggen made his debut at the Salzburg Festival in two concerts with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, while his return visits to the Festival included a highly-praised series of concerts with the Mozarteum Orchestra.

Recent operatic engagements included Mozart’s Mitridate, Re di Ponte in Zürich and Gluck's Orfeo with the Opéra de Lyon.

Frans Brüggen continues extensive artistic activity by travelling a lot and recording with the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century.