Kirill Petrenko was born in 1972 in Omsk, where he studied piano at the music school. At the age of 11 he performed as pianist for the first time in public with the local symphony orchestra. In 1990 the family moved to Vorarlberg. At first Kirill Petrenko continued to study piano in Feldkirch and then conducting at the Music University in Vienna, where he graduated in 1997.

His first engagement as assistant conductor brought him to the Vienna Volksoper in autumn of 1997. During the years 1999 to 2002 Kirill Petrenko was music director at the Theater in Meiningen, where he made his debut with Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth von Mzensk. He experienced international recognistion with Der Ring des Nibelungen in 2001, staged by Christine Mielitz and with set designer Alfred Hrdlicka.

2002 - 2007 Kirill Petrenko was music director at the Komische Oper Berlin.

Along with the positions in Berlin and Meiningen, Kirill Petrenko has quickly developed an international career. Important debuts amongst others were: 2000: Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, 2001: Vienna State Opera and Semperoper Dresden, 2003: Barcelona Liceu, Paris Opéra National, Covent Garden, Bavarian State Opera and Metropolitan Opera New York; 2005: Oper Frankfurt. From 2006 to 2008 together with Peter Stein he created the cycle of Pushkin’s operas in Lyon (which was shown again in the spring of 2010).

Since he left the Komische Oper Berlin in July 2007 Kirill Petrenko worked as guest conductor at the Metropolitan Opera New York, Covent Garden, Vienna State Opera, at Theater an der Wien where he made his debut in 2004. In 2009 he conducted n new production of Jenufa at the Bavarian State Opera and Pfitzner’s Palestrina at the Oper Frankfurt.

Kirill Petrenko has worked with the most important orchestras including the Berliner Philharmoniker, Staatskapelle Berlin, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the Bavarian State Orchestra, the Orchestra des WDR Köln, the Philharmoniker Hamburg, the NDR Symphonyorchestra Hamburg, the Museumsorchester Frankfurt, the RSO Wien, the Wiener Symphoniker, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Gulbenkian Orchester Lisbon, Orchestra Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale – RAI, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra and Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam. He also conducted concerts at the Salzburg and Bregenz Festival.

Kirill Petrenko led the new proudction of the Der Ring des Nibelungen at Bayreuth in summer 2013. Since September 2013 he is music director of the Bavarian State Opera with great success.