Kirill Petrenko - Chief Conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker

Kirill Petrenko has been chief conductor and artistic director of the Berliner Philharmoniker since the 2019/20 season. Born in Omsk in Siberia, he received his training first in his home town and later in Austria. He established his conducting career in opera with positions at the Meininger Theater and the Komische Oper Berlin. From 2013 to 2020, Kirill Petrenko was general music director of the Bayerische Staatsoper. He has also made guest appearances at the world’s leading opera houses and festivals, including the Wiener Staatsoper, the Royal Opera House in London, Opéra national in Paris, Metropolitan Opera in New York and the Bayreuth Festival.

Moreover, he has conducted the major international symphony orchestras – in Vienna, Munich, Dresden, Paris, Amsterdam, London, Rome, Chicago, Cleveland and Israel. Since his debut in 2006, a variety of programmatic themes have emerged in his collaboration with the Berliner Philharmoniker. This includes working on the orchestra’s core Classical-Romantic repertoire, most notably with Beethoven’s 9th Symphony when he took up his post. Unjustly forgotten composers such as Josef Suk and Bernd Alois Zimmermann are another of Kirill Petrenko’s interests. In opera performances with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Richard Strauss’s »Elektra« and Giacomo Puccini’s »Madama Butterfly« have recently attracted attention.

Berliner Philharmoniker