Bertrand de Billy
Principal Guest Conductor
Several opera productions form the core of Bertrand de Billy’s 2021/22 season, in particular his return to the Vienna State Opera with revivals of Otello, Faust, Flying Dutchman and Die Fledermaus. At the Bavarian State Opera he will conduct Flying Dutchman, and he will return to Opéra de Paris with Don Giovanni, a piece he will shortly after conduct at San Francisco Opera. He will be the principal guest conductor of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra for the next two years and will also conduct the Orchestre National France, Orchestre Chambre de Lausanne and Orchestre Suisse Romande
Early in his career, guest engagements brought Mr. de Billy to the state operas of Vienna, Berlin, Hamburg and Munich, as well as to such renowned auspices as the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, the Grand Théâtre de la Monnaie, the Opéra National de Paris, and to the opera houses in Washington and Los Angeles, a.o. Since 1997 he has been a regular guest at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and at the Salzburg Festival since 2002.
Alongside his celebrated career as an opera conductor, Mr. de Billy regularly performs concerts worldwide, having led such distinguished orchestras as the Cleveland Orchestra, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Orchestre de Paris, the Wiener Symphoniker as well as the Museumsorchester Frankfurt, the Philharmoniker Hamburg, the RSB Berlin, the Konzerthaus Orchestra Berlin, the Dresdner Philharmoniker, the Bamberger Symphoniker the Royal Danish Orchestra, the Orchestre Suisse Romande, the London Philharmonic, the NHK Symphony Orchestra, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, and many more.
Mr. de Billy conducts a wide repertoire from Bach to many world premieres. He maintains a close relationship with the Vienna State Opera, Theater an der Wien, the Wiener Musikverein and the Wiener Konzerthaus, as well as to the Munich State Opera.
Mr. de Billy was born in Paris where he studied music and performed as an orchestra member before taking up conducting. From 1993 to 1995 he was first Kapellmeister and Deputy Music Director of the Anhaltisches Theater in Dessau, and from 1996 to 1998 he held the same position at the Vienna Volksoper. Following that he was Music Director at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona from 1999 to 2004, and also Music Director of the Radio Symphony Orchestra in Vienna from 2002 to 2010. From 2013-2015 Mr. de Billy served as the principal guest conductor of the Oper Frankfurt and the Frankfurter Opern- und Museumsorchester, from 2013-2016 of the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne and from 2014 to 2018 of the Dresdner Philharmonie.
Numerous CD and DVD recordings document Mr. de Billy’s work, and he has received many prestigious awards in France and Austria.