Vasily Petrenko is Music Director of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, a position he took on in 2021, becoming Conductor Laureate of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra following his hugely acclaimed fifteen-year tenure as their Chief Conductor from 2006-2021. He is the Associate Conductor of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León, and has also served as Chief Conductor of the European Union Youth Orchestra (2015-2024), Chief Conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra (2013-2020) and Principal Conductor of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain (2009–2013). He stood down as Artistic Director of the State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia ‘Evgeny Svetlanov’ in 2021 having been their Principal Guest Conductor from 2016 and Artistic Director from 2020.
Artist of the Year at the 2017 Gramophone Awards, Petrenko frequently works with many of the world’s most prestigious orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Dresden Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, Czech Philharmonic, NHK Symphony Tokyo and Sydney Symphony orchestras. In 2019 he made his Metropolitan Opera debut conducting Tchaikovsky's Queen of Spades, as well as his Carnegie Hall debut.
Highlights of the 2023-24 season include Boris Godunov at the Bayerische Staatsoper as part of the Munich Opera Festival, as well as returns to Filarmonica della Scala, Oslo Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic and Pittsburgh Symphony orchestras. With the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, he will conduct on tour in Italy, Germany and the US, and present the Icons Rediscovered concert series in London.
Recent recordings in his award-winning discography include works by Prokofiev and Myaskovsky with the Oslo Philharmonic, released on LAWO Classics.
