Vasily Petrenko

Vasily Eduardovich Petrenko (Васи́лий Эдуа́рдович Петре́нко; born 7 July 1976) is a Russian-British conductor.

He is currently chief conductor of the European Union Youth Orchestra and music director of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Of Russian and Ukrainian ancestry, Petrenko was born in Leningrad, USSR.

He attended the Capella Boys Music School and the St Petersburg Conservatoire.

Petrenko studied conducting principally under Ravil Martynov, also learning from Mariss Jansons, Yuri Temirkanov, Esa-Pekka Salonen, George Benjamin and Roberto Carnevale.

He was resident conductor at the St. Petersburg Opera and Ballet Theatre from 1994 to 1997.

He has served as chief conductor of the State Academy of St Petersburg since 1994.

In 2002 he won the first prize of the Cadaqués Orchestra International Conducting Competition.

Petrenko made his conducting debut with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (RLPO) in November 2004.

After this appearance, in July 2005, he was named the RLPO's principal conductor, the youngest-ever conductor in the post, effective with the 2006–2007 season for an initial contract of 3 years.

Since taking up the post, the orchestra's financial situation and attendance improved.

He has also received critical praise for revitalising the orchestra, in Russian repertoire (especially Shostakovich) as well as standard repertoire such as Brahms, and in English music.

In May 2007, the RLPO announced that Petrenko had extended his contract with the orchestra to 2012.

In April 2007, Petrenko was one of eight conductors of British orchestras to endorse the 10-year classical music outreach manifesto, "Building on Excellence: Orchestras for the 21st Century", to increase the presence of classical music in the UK, including giving free entry to all British schoolchildren to a classical music concert.

His first conducting appearance at The Proms was with the RLPO in August 2008.

Petrenko and the RLPO have recorded several compact discs for Naxos.

From December 2008 to 2013 Petrenko served as Principal Conductor of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, conducting his first concert with them at the 2009 BBC Proms.

In September 2009, the orchestra announced a further extension of his contract to 2015, with a change of Petrenko's title to Chief Conductor.

Petrenko's recording of Tchaikovsky's Manfred Symphony won the Gramophone orchestral recording of the year in 2009.

Petrenko first conducted the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra in December 2009.

In February 2011, the Oslo Philharmonic announced the appointment of Petrenko as its next chief conductor, as of the 2013-2014 season, with an initial contract of 4 years.

His initial Oslo contract called for 7 weeks of appearances in his first seasons and 10 weeks of appearances in subsequent seasons.

In March 2013, the RLPO announced the conversion of Petrenko's contract into an extended open-ended agreement with no specific scheduled time of conclusion, and where Petrenko is to give an advance notice of 3 years of when he wishes to conclude his tenure.

In August 2013, comments attributed to Petrenko in a Norwegian newspaper that appeared to denigrate female conductors caused controversy, including calls for his resignation from the RLPO.

Petrenko subsequently apologised for how some people chose to construe his remarks, and stated that his comments were in specific reference to the situation for conductors in Russia, rather than female conductors in general.

He also indicated that part of the controversy was due to the fact that the interview was conducted in English, rather than Norwegian.

Petrenko also subsequently stated publicly:

In November 2015, Petrenko's Oslo contract was extended through 2020.

Petrenko first guest-conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) in March 2016.

Petrenko became principal guest conductor of the State Academic Symphony Orchestra of the Russian Federation in 2016.

In January 2021, the orchestra announced the appointment of Petrenko as its next principal conductor, effective 1 September 2021.

In response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Petrenko suspended his work with the orchestra, stating:

Later in 2022, under duress from the Russian Ministry of Culture, Petrenko submitted a letter of resignation from the orchestra.

Petrenko and his wife Evgenia Chernysheva-Petrenko, who is herself a conductor, and their two children, Alexander (Sasha) and Anya.

He returned for a subsequent guest-conducting engagement in April 2017.

In July 2018, the RPO announced the appointment Petrenko as its new music director, effective with the 2021-2022 season, with an initial contract of 5 years.

In October 2019, the orchestra announced the scheduled conclusion of Petrenko's Oslo tenure at the close of the 2019-2020 season.

In parallel with this RPO announcement, Petrenko is scheduled to stand down as chief conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic at the close of the 2019-2020 season.

He is to hold the title of music director-designate for the 2020-2021 season.

Simultaneously with the RPO announcement, the RLPO announced that Petrenko is to conclude his RLPO chief conductorship at the close of the 2020-2021 season, and subsequently to take the title of conductor laureate with the RLPO.