Patrick Botti is the Music Director and Founder of the Waltham Symphony Orchestra. Born in Marseille, France, Maestro Botti studied conducting, piano, solfège, harmony, and voice at the Marseille National Conservatory, the Académie Régionale de Piano in Marseille, the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris, and the Paris National Conservatory. He holds degrees from the Marseille and Paris National Conservatories, and was the winner of numerous awards and scholarships. He completed post graduate studies in Musicological Research at both the Sorbonne University and the Paris Conservatory and in conducting at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris. His conducting teachers have included Jeno Rehak, Franco Ferrara, and Pierre Dervaux in Europe and, Benjamin Zander, Richard Pittman and Thomas Dunn in the United States.

He began his conducting career as Music Director of the Echo du Futur Symphony Orchestra in Marseille. He then went on to found and direct the highly acclaimed Concilium Musicum de Paris, for which he still remains Artistic Advisor. Maestro Botti was subsequently invited in 1988 by the French Ministry of Culture to work on the restructuring of French orchestras using American models. While in France, Patrick worked with professional orchestras, especially the Ensemble Mouvement 12, a professional orchestra in Toulouse, France.

Botti has guest conducted numerous orchestras worldwide including the Paris Conservatory Orchestra, the BBC and Royal College of Music Orchestra in London, the Luxembourg Radio Television Symphony Orchestra, the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra in Canada, the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, the New England Conservatory Orchestras, the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra, and the Colorado Springs Symphony. His interpretations of both French and American music are acclaimed worldwide, and he has been heard on National Public Radio, the CBC Network (Canada), the BBC (London), and on French National Radio.

He was also Principal Guest Conductor of the Central Massachusetts Symphony Orchestra from 1992 to 2003 and Artistic Director of the New Hampshire Philharmonic Orchestra from 1993 to 2000. 

Botti is also an accomplished pianist, who has performed extensively in Europe as a soloist or as a member of the famed Trio Poulenc, having been a fellow at the Marguerite Long Piano Academy and piano faculty at the Piano Regional Academy in Marseille, and regional conservatories in France.