Andrei Petrenko (Principal Chorus Master)
• Honoured Artist of Russia (2008) • Diploma-recipient at the II Russian
Conducting Competition (1988) • Prize-winner at the International
Competition in Hajnówka, Poland (1st prize, 1993) • Recipient of the Golden
Sofit prize (2014)
Andrei Petrenko graduated from the Leningrad State Rimsky-Korsakov
Conservatoire, specialising in choral, opera and symphony conducting. Andrei
Petrenko’s performing career began in 1981 as a production conductor at the
Leningrad State Musical Comedy Theatre; he subsequently became the Director of
the Smolny Cathedral Chorus and was a guest conductor of the Congress Orchestra
of St Petersburg. From 1989 to 2000 he taught choral and symphony conducting at
the St Petersburg State Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatoire, in addition to holding
international master-classes with foreign students. Andrei Petrenko has toured
to more than twenty countries with various choruses, ballet companies and
symphony orchestras of St Petersburg. He has staged productions of operas in
Finland (Gounod’s Faust in Pori) and in Estonia (Paisiello’s Il barbiere di
Siviglia in Tallinn).
Since 2000, Andrei Petrenko has been the Mariinsky Theatre’s Principal Chorus
Master. Among the most outstanding productions in which he has been involved in
recent years are operas such as Les Troyens, Benvenuto Cellini, Attila, Un ballo
in maschera, The Nose, War and Peace, Prince Igor, Eugene Onegin, The Love for
Three Oranges, A Life for the Tsar, The Golden Cockerel, Christmas Eve, La
Bohème, Parsifal, Madama Butterfly, Tosca, Götterdämmerung, Der Fliegende
Holländer, Jenůfa, The Gambler, Nabucco, Otello, The Enchantress, Turandot, The
Brothers Karamazov, Dead Souls, Tristan und Isolde, The Mystery of the Apostle
Paul, The Lefthander and A Christmas Tale among others.
At the Mariinsky Theatre he has conducted the operas Aida, La traviata,
L’elisir d’amore, Don Pasquale (in concert), Samson et Dalila, Król Roger,
Prince Igor, Eugene Onegin, The Snow Maiden, The Tale of Tsar Saltan, The
Enchanted Wanderer, Sorochintsy Fair and War and Peace as well as the ballet Les
Noces and a staged version of Verdi’s Requiem and cantata and oratorio works by
Mozart, Berlioz, Gavrilin, Rachmaninoff, Kastalsky and Prokofiev. He has
prepared numerous concert programmes featuring Mariinsky Opera soloists and the
Mariinsky Chorus and Orchestra. Andrei Petrenko conducted the world premiere of
Vladimir Martynov’s Vita Nuova at the Moscow House of Music during the IV Moscow
Easter Festival.
Moreover, Andrei Petrenko’s repertoire includes Bach’s Johannes-Passion and
Matthäus-Passion, Handel’s oratorio The Messiah, Mozart and Berlioz’ Requiems,
Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem, Rossini’s Stabat Mater, Stravinsky’s Symphony of
Psalms and Oedipus Rex, Gavrilin’s Chimes, Sibelius’ symphonic poem Kullervo,
Rachmaninoff’s cantatas Spring and The Bells, Sviridov’s Kursk Songs, Kokkonen’s
Requiem and numerous programmes of symphony music.
Under the baton of Andrei Petrenko, the Mariinsky Chorus has performed a
cappella programmes at prestigious concert venues throughout Russia and in
Lithuania, Finland, The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland,
Italy, Great Britain and Israel. Since 2008 Andrei Petrenko has been a guest
conductor of the Choeur de Radio France. Since 2014 he has been Artistic
Director of the Symphony Chorus of the Sverdlovsk Philharmonic.
Andrei Petrenko has received a written deed from President of the Russian
Federation Vladimir Putin for his great contribution to the preparations for the
Olympic Games in Sochi in 2014.
Andrei Petrenko’s repertoire as an opera conductor also includes Le nozze di
Figaro, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Haydn’s Lo speziale, Schubert’s Die
Zwillingsbrüder and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Sadko, in addition to the ballets Swan
Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, Giselle, Don Quixote, Chopiniana,
Carmen-Suite, Karen Khachaturian’s The Adventures of Cipollino, Igor Rogalev’s
Peter Pan and the operettas Die Fledermaus, Die Lustige Witwe, Die
Czardasfürstin, Das Veilchen vom Montmartre, La Belle Hélène and Die Gräfin
Mariza.

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