The award honors the significant contribution of the 61-year-old Dutchman to Bach performance and scholarship. Koopman performed at the festival, which is run in conjunction with the Bach-Leipzig Archive, with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra.

The 2005 award was given to Englishman John Eliot Gardiner.

Bach was cantor of Leipzig's St. Thomas Church and wrote the St. Matthew Passion, the Christmas Oratorio, and the Mass in B minor, among other works, while working as a music director in the city from 1723 until his death in 1750.