Georges Prêtre was born in Waziers, France, on 14 August 1924. He studied trumpet and composition at the Paris Conservatoire from 1939 to 1944, and conducting under André Cluytens. He initially intended to be a composer, but soon turned to conducting. He made his début in 1946 at the Marseilles Opera House with Le Roi d'Ys and spent the next decade working in provincial opera houses around France. He first conducted in Paris in 1956 when he gave the Paris premiere of Richard Strauss's Capriccio at the Opéra-Comique, where he remained until 1959.
His debut in the USA came in 1959 at the Chicago Lyric Opera with Thaïs, and he first conducted at Covent Garden in 1961, the Metropolitan in New York in 1964 and La Scala, Milan, in 1965. In 1961 he was chosen by Maria Callas to conduct a recording of French arias for her and he became her preferred conductor for the rest of her professional career.
In addition to his work in the opera House, Prêtre has established himself in the concert hall, mainly performing music by French composers. Although his repertoire has also included many leading non-French composers, he is especially associated with the music of Francis Poulenc, giving the premiere of his opera La voix humaine at the Opéra-Comique in 1959 and his Sept répons des ténèbres in 1963. In 1999 he gave a series of concerts in Paris to celebrate the centenary of Poulenc's birth. In 1988 Marcel Landowski dedicated his Fourth Symphony to Prêtre.
He has conducted major orchestras all over the world and in 1986 he accepted an appointment with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. He will conduct the Vienna Philharmonic in the 2008 New Year's Day Concert
