KIRILL PETRENKO became General Music Director of the Komische Oper Berlin in September 2002, after he had held the same position - as the youngest GMD in Germany until then at the Theater Meiningen (1999-2002).

Born in Omsk, Russia in 1972, he received his musical education at the College of Music in Omsk. He then moved to Austria, where he studied at the Music Conservatory in Feldkirch, graduated with outstanding honors, and began conducting at the Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna.

He made his operatic debut with Britten's Let's Make an Opera in 1995, after having conducted many smaller orchestras. In 1997/98 Petrenko became Kapellmeister at the Vienna Volksoper, where he later returned with successful productions of Boris Godunov and Così fan tutte.

During his time as General Music Director of the Theater Meiningen, he conducted a wide repertoire, including his first complete Ring des Nibelungen in 2001, which was a triumph, with the international press and audiences alike.

Petrenko has been a guest of international opera companies and orchestras, including the Maggio Musicale in Florence, the State Opera Dresden, the Vienna State Opera, the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, the Opéra de Bastille in Paris, the Opera in Lyon, the Edinburgh Festival, the Munich State Opera, the KlangBogen Festival Vienna, the Opera Frankfurt, and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London. In 2004, he made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera New York, where he returned for Ariadne auf Naxos in October 2005.

He conducted, among others, concerts with the WDR-Symphony Orchestra at the Cologne Philharmonic, with RAI Torino, the Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the RSO Vienna, the MDR Symphonic Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, and, in February 2006, his successful debut with the Berlin Philharmonic.

Future plans include opera productions in Bilbao, Frankfurt, Lyon, London, Munich, New York, and Vienna as well as concerts in Duisburg, Cleveland, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Leipzig, Lisbon, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Munich, and again with the Berlin and Hamburg Philharmonics.

08/07