I IFFCC Jury President
Vasily Petrenko, born in 1976, began his musical education at the St Petersburg Capella Boys Music School, Russia’s oldest music school.
He later studied at the St Petersburg Conservatoire, where he participated in master classes with renowned conductors such as Ilya Musin, Mariss Jansons, and Yuri Temirkanov.
Petrenko has conducted the Berlin Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhaus, London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia (Rome), St Petersburg Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, Czech Philharmonic, NHK Symphony, and Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
In North America, he has led the Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, and the San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, and Montreal Symphony Orchestras. Petrenko has also appeared at the Edinburgh Festival, Grafenegg Festival, and the BBC Proms.
A versatile opera conductor, Petrenko has conducted over thirty operas, performing at major venues such as Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Opéra National de Paris, Opernhaus Zürich, Bayerische Staatsoper, and the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
As a recording artist, Petrenko has built a distinguished discography. His Shostakovich, Rachmaninov, and Elgarsymphony cycles with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra have received international acclaim. His recordings with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra include cycles of Scriabin’s symphonies, Strauss’ tone poems, and selected symphonies by Prokofiev and Myaskovsky.
In September 2017, Petrenko was named Artist of the Year at the Gramophone Awards, a decade after receiving their Young Artist of the Year award in 2007.
He also won Male Artist of the Year at the Classical BRIT Awards in 2010.
Petrenko is one of the few to be awarded Honourary Doctorates from both the University of Liverpool and Liverpool Hope University (2009), and an Honourary Fellowship from Liverpool John Moores University (2012), recognizing his significant contribution to the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the city’s cultural scene.
In 2023, Vasily Petrenko served as the President of the Jury for the first International Ferenc Fricsay Conducting Competition.
