Kirill Petrenko

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Kirill Garrievich Petrenko (born 11 February 1972) is a Russian-Austrian conductor and the chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic. He was born in Omsk, in the Soviet Union, to a violinist father and a musicologist mother. He has Jewish heritage and grew up with little religion. At 18 he moved to Austria when borders opened, studied piano, and began his conducting career. He studied in Feldkirch and Vienna, and his early jobs included the Vienna Volksoper (1997–1999) and the Südthüringisches Staatstheater (1999–2002), where he conducted Wagner’s Ring cycle in 2001. He then led the Komische Oper Berlin (2002–2007). He debuted with the Bavarian State Opera in 2003 and became its general music director in 2013. He first guest-conducted the Berlin Philharmonic in 2006 and returned in 2009 and 2012. From 2013 to 2015 he conducted Wagner at Bayreuth. In 2015 he was elected chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, with his tenure starting in the 2019–2020 season and officially beginning August 19, 2019. In 2020 he helped support freelance musicians during the pandemic. He has spoken out against the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and has championed Arnold Schoenberg’s music with the Berlin Philharmonic, including a new recording of Die Jakobsleiter released in 2025.