Bertrand de Billy is a French conductor. He attended a Jesuit school but only started serious musical studies when he was around 14-15; he studied piano and violin. After his career as an instrumental musician, de Billy began his conducting career in Paris. He later moved to Germany and built up his career as an opera conductor. His professional operatic conducting debut was for La Traviata in Oviedo, Spain in 1991, replacing a conductor at short notice. He was the general music director at the Anhaltisches Theater in Dessau from 1993 to 1995. At the Vienna Volksoper he held the post of first conductor from 1996 to 1998. From 1999 to 2004, de Billy was Chief Conductor of the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona, after the reopening of the theatre. de Billy conducts mostly from memory, although he usually has the score in front of him in case problems occur; at the Volksoper he was phoned at the podium during the 8th scene of La P�richole to be informed that scene 9 would be cut. He prefers the smaller opera theatres, where more intimacy can be found with the audience. Since 2002, de Billy has served as chief conductor of the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra. 

January 11th, 1965 in Paris (Age 59)