Billy Schmidt was born in Leipzig and completed artistic clarinet studies at the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber Dresden with Prof. J. Klemm and Prof. Henry Phillipp from 2010 to 2015. In 2015 he continued his artistic master studies with Prof. Thorsten Johanns and Andreas Langenbuch at the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt Weimar.
Since 2012 he has been a scholarship holder at Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now e.V. He participated in the Emsbüren Music Days with Johannes Peitz as well as in master classes with Jörg Widmann and Prof. Heiner Schindler, among others. As part of the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival and the Summer Campus of the HMT Rostock, he played as a soloist in 2012 together with the Polish Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra Sopot under the direction of Sergio Cärdenas.
He gained practical experience in professional orchestras from 2012 as a substitute at the Dresden State Operetta and 2013-2015 as principal clarinetist in the Leipzig Radio Wind Orchestra (parental leave substitute), with the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra he was already a substitute from 2015 to 2017. Since March 2017 he is a permanent member of the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie and plays as a substitute. among others at the Elblandphilharmonie Sachsen, at the Theater Freiberg and the bei Thüringen-Philharmonie Gotha.
Billy Schmidt has worked in numerous concerts with conductors such as Vladimir Jurowski, Jonathan Nott, Simone Young, Markus Poschner and Heinz Holliger.