Lorenzo Coppola was born in Rome. After studying modern clarinet with Franco Ferranti, he studied historical clarinet with Eric Hoeprich at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague (The Netherlands) from 1991 to 1995.

In 1991 he settled in Paris and began performing with ensembles specializing in historically informed performance, including the Freiburger Barockorchester—of which he has been principal clarinet since 1997—Les Arts Florissants, La Petite Bande, the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, La Grande Écurie et la Chambre du Roy, and Europa Galante.

He shares a deep love of chamber music with musicians and ensembles such as Cristina Esclapez, Andreas Staier, Isabelle Faust, Alexander Melnikov, Hidemi Suzuki, the Kuijken Quartet, Ensemble Zefiro, and the Terpsycordes Quartet.

Together with pianist and fortepianist Cristina Esclapez, he founded Ensemble Dialoghi in 2015. With this group they explore the Classical and Romantic chamber repertoire with piano, with particular attention to communicating directly with their audiences.

He has taught historical clarinet and chamber music at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya in Barcelona since 2004. He has recorded a number of important works from the clarinet repertoire for Harmonia Mundi, including Mozart’s Concerto K. 622 (with the Freiburger Barockorchester), Brahms’s Op. 120 sonatas (with Andreas Staier), Schubert’s Octet Op. 166 (with Isabelle Faust), and the wind-and-fortepiano quintets by Mozart K. 452 and Beethoven Op. 16 (with Ensemble Dialoghi).