Vasily Petrenko began his music education at Russia’s oldest music school, the St Petersburg Capella Boys Music School, before studying at St Petersburg Conservatoire.
He took part in masterclasses Ilya Musin, Mariss Jansons, and Yuri Temirkanov as part of his music education, and gained recognition in international competitions before taking up the baton at St Petersburg State Academic Symphony Orchestra from 2004 to 2007.
Petrenko has held prestigious posts at the Oslo Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Czech Philharmonic, Finnish Radio Symphony, NHK Symphony Tokyo and Sydney Symphony Orchestra, to name a fine few.
He became Chief Conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic in 2006 and becomes the new Music Director of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO), starting in their 2021/22 season (he will be Director Designate in the year running up to the appointment).
The Russian-British maestro made his debut with the orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall in March 2016, with a powerful rendition of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 ‘Resurrection’.
At the same time as the RPO appointment, Petrenko is also going to be taking on the role of Conductor Laureate for the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (RLPO).
In 2009, he scooped Gramophone’s Orchestra of the Year award for his recording of Tchaikovsky’s Manfred Symphony with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.
He has also been honoured as Artist of the Year at the Gramophones twice – in 2017 and 2007 – and collected the Male Artist of the Year awards at the Classical Brits in 2010.
Petrenko is married to fellow conductor, Evgenia Chernysheva-Petrenko, and they have two children.
