Kirill Petrenko

Kirill Petrenko has been Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Berliner Philharmoniker since August 2019. Born in Omsk, Siberia, in 1972, he moved with his family to Vorarlberg in Austria at the age of 18. After studying conducting at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, he began his career in 1997 at the Vienna Volksoper and subsequently served as General Music Director at the Meiningen Court Theatre (1999-2002), the Komische Oper Berlin (2002-07), and the Bavarian Staatsoper (2013-20). He has appeared as a guest conductorat the Vienna Staatsoper, the Royal Opera House in London, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Opéra national de Paris, and the Bayreuth Festival. He has also conducted the major symphony orchestras in Vienna, Munich, Dresden, Paris, Amsterdam, London, Rome, Chicago, Cleveland, and Israel. With the Berliner Philharmoniker, Petrenko focuses on the core Classical and Romantic repertoire while also championing unjustly neglected works. In the 2026-27 season, his repertoire includes Hindemith’s Symphony Mathis der Maler, Beethoven’s Missa solemnis, and Respighi’s Roman Trilogy. Petrenko is also committed to the training of young musicians by conducting concerts with the Karajan Academy and is also involved in education projects. At the Easter Festival, which returned to its original home in Salzburg in 2026 after twelve years in Baden-Baden, he conducts both concerts and opera productions, including Wagner’s Die Walküre in 2027 as part of a new Ring cycle; in Berlin, he also leads Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel. On tour with the Berliner Philharmoniker, he appears regularly at the festivals in Salzburg and Lucerne, as well as in major European capitals; in October they will perform in New York and in three South American countries. His recordings include works by John Adams, Gustav Mahler, and Arnold Schoenberg, as well as symphonies by Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, and Shostakovich.

Lucerne Festival debut on 7 September 2016 in a Wagner-Strauss program with the Bavarian Staatsorchester.

April 2026