First invitation to the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande: 25 April 2012

Born in St Petersburg and educated at the oldest music school in Russia, the St Petersburg Capella Boys Music School, Vasily Petrenko then studied at the St Petersburg Conservatory and participated in masterclasses with such personalities as Ilya Musin, Mariss Jansons and Yuri Temirkanov.

In 2021 Petrenko will take up the position of Music Director of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He is currently Principal Conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the European Union Youth Orchestra and is also Principal Guest Conductor of the Russian State Academic Symphony Orchestra.

Petrenko has worked with many of the world's most prestigious orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Russian National Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. In addition, he has performed at numerous festivals around the world and at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Glyndebourne Festival Opera, the Paris Opera, the Mikhailovsky Theatre, the Zürich Opera and the Bayerische Staatsoper.