Patrick Botti

French American conductor, Patrick Botti, was raised in Marseille France, from a musical family. He discovered his conducting vocation at the age of forteen while visiting a convent in the South of France. In Marseille,hs studied piano, solfege, harmony, countrepoint, analysis, conducting, voice, chamber music, percussion and organ. His teachers included such prominent artists as Pierre Barbizet, Jeno Rehak and Jean Mein among others.

Upon completing his baccalaureate, he went on to law school with the intention of pursuing a couble carrer in law and music. The demands of both proved to be almost impossible to pursue and Patrick dedicated his entire life to conducting. In Marseille, he co-created a student orchestra, Echo du Futur Orchestra.

He moved to Paris, where he studied at the Paris National Conservatory, the Ecole Normale de Musique and at the Sorbonne University. There he studied conducting, piano, analysis, musicology, history of music and composition. Some of his teachers have included Pierre Dervaux, Jacques Casterede,and Yves Gerard among others. Patrick also studied church music and liturgy in Marseille as well as at the Sorbonne in Paris. He was involved in parish choirs at a young age, and become choir director in this early twentiea. Im addition to his early dispositions as an orchestra conductir, Patrick was also very early recognized as a very competent choir conductor and organist.

In 1982, he was granted a Fulbright Scholarship to study conducting at the New england Conservatory in Boston. There his teachers have included Benjamin Zander and Richard Pittman. He was allowed to remain in the US for a second year on a Fulbright affiliate program, studying conducting at Boston University under Thomas Dunn, and opera coaching with Alan Rogers.

He created the French Symphony of Boston and the Jamaica Plain Symphony in 1986 to great acclaim. A staunch defender of French culture, he promoted French artists, performers and composers from Europe and the US. He started to be very active in the Catholic Church in America, becoming Director of Music and Liturgy for important churches in new England and later in Florida.

Patrick botti has conducted numerous orchestras in Europe, Canada and The US. Although he has led many major orchestras, he has also dedicated part of his career helpng develop local professional civic and amateur community orchestras. He believes strongly in the importance of a strong educational system, including education in the arts. He has worked closely with elementary and high schools in developing collaborative orchestra programming.

Patrick is also an accomplished pianist who has performed extensively, especially in Europe as a soloist and as a chamber musician. In addition to his orchestra conducting career, ha has conducted numerous choirs and choruses in France and in the US.

He is a very appreciated and sought-after conductor, who has devleloped as close relationship with many of the orchestras he has conducted. Hs is known for his collegial approach to conducting, inviting the musician in playing together as part of a team, as in a chamber ensemble. His reheearsal style is precise, not talkative, very friendly and very intuitive. He is very passionate at the podium and yet his style is often very subdued. His technique is very much influenced by his French education. He has developed over the years a particular gift for the performance of German music, especially Brahms works. He has been recognized as a new breed of conductors, breaking the mold of the traditional maestro.

He has been heard on French National Radio aCBC-Radio Cnada network and PBS stations. He has appeared on numerous TV stations in France, Italy, England, Canada and inthe United States