Born in Caen in 1958, he early gets the cello’s Premier Prix in André Navarra’s class. A scholarship brings him to Vienna, where he makes the acquaintance of Nikolaus Harnoncourt, which turns out to be a turning point. After that, he meets Jordi Savall, who introduces him to the Viola da gamba and becomes his teacher at the Schola Cantorum of Basel. After finding in ancient instruments his ideal environment, Coin immediately enters the concert world of the highest level, working with the Concentus Musicus of Vienna and then with Christopher Hogwood.

In 1984, together with three Austrian colleagues, Erich Hobarth, Andrea Bischof, and Anita Mitterer, he founds the Quartet Mosaïques. Their CDs dedicated to Haydn’s op. 20 and op. 33 are awarded with the prestigious Gramophone Award. Christophe Coin also works with musicians like Patrick Cohen, Monica Huggett, Ton Koopman, Wieland Kuijken, Gustav Leonhardt, Scott Ross, Jordi Savall, and Hopkinson Smith. He often gets invitation, both as a soloist and a conductor, from great institutions, such as the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées, the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, the Concentus Musicus, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and the Academy of Ancient Music.

His debut in didactical activities is also early. In 1984, at the Conservatory of Paris, he gets the chair of baroque cello and viola da gamba. Then he becomes a teacher at Basel’s Schola Cantorum and at the international academies of Granada and Innsbruck. In 1991 he starts leading the Ensemble Baroque de Limoges, with which he explores the music from the XVII and XVIII centuries. Tireless “musician-researcher,” Coin works with the Ensemble and with a group of musicologists, luthiers, and researchers on antique instruments’ manufacture and technique, regularly organizing international meetings in the Limousin. He is a member of the Scientific Committee, and the President of the French Society of the Viola da Gamba.