“Russian conductor Kirill Petrenko has been unveiled as the next artistic director of the Berlin Philharmonic orchestra,” writes Ben Knight in Monday’s (6/22) Guardian (London). “Petrenko is expected to take over from Sir Simon Rattle when the British conductor’s contract expires in 2018…. Petrenko is tied to his contract in Bavaria until 2018…. Petrenko’s appointment comes six weeks after a fraught 11-hour session in which the 124 members of the orchestra failed to elect a new head conductor.… Rattle takes up a new role as the London Symphony Orchestra’s Music Director in September 2017. The exclusive right of the Berlin Philharmonic’s musicians to elect their own head conductor is considered unique—neither the orchestra’s incumbent artistic director, the general director, nor the Berlin culture ministry can veto the decision. Petrenko, who has been director of the Bavarian State Opera since 2013, was born in 1972 in Omsk and emigrated to Austria in 1990. He is no stranger to the German capital, having been general music director at the Komische Oper in Berlin from 2002 to 2007. He has worked with the Berlin Philharmonic as a guest conductor in 2006, 2009 and 2012.”
Posted June 22, 2015
Photo of Kirill Petrenko by Wilfried Hösl
