Claude Coppens (°1936) studied with Marcel Maas in Brussels, where he graduated in piano. He also studied in Paris with Marguerite Long and Jacques Février. Coppens is specialised in the contemporary piano repertoire and is a self-taught composer. He teaches at the Royal Conservatory in Ghent.

The style of Coppens' works evolved from fairly traditional into a broader tonal and dodecaphonic idiom in the 1960s to a post-serial style in the 1970s. His fascination for order and chaos expresses itself in a number of works in which the issue of the relationship between the composer and performer is raised, and balances itself between total freedom and complete determinism. Coppens uses his own notation system for particular performance techniques, determining the general soundscape while nevertheless granting the performer some freedom. Coppens looks at the world and provides commentary that is inherently supported by the use of concepts from philosophy, psychology, sociology and mathematics.