Christie, William (1944- )

US conductor and harpsichordist. He moved to Paris, France, in 1971, becoming a member of the Five Centuries Ensemble and founding Les Arts Florissants in 1979. He has given many performances in Europe and the USA with baroque opera, including Atys by Jean-Baptiste Lully in Paris and New York, Les Indes Galantes and Pygmalion by Jean-Philippe Rameau, Luigi Rossi's Orfeo in Vienna and Alcina in Paris and Geneva in 1990.

He studied with Igor Kipnis and Ralph Kirkpatrick, and made his London debut in 1990 with Gustave Charpentier's Actéon and Dido and Aeneas. He returned in 1992 with The Fairy Queen and conducted King Arthur at Covent Garden in 1995. He was professor at the Paris Conservatory from 1982.