Vasily Petrenko & Siobhan Stagg

In 2021, Vasily Petrenko will take up the position of Music Director of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Currently, he holds the position of Chief Conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (since 2009 as a continuation of his period as Principal Conductor which commenced in 2006), Chief Conductor of the European Union Youth Orchestra (since 2015) and Principal Guest Conductor of the State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia (since 2016). He served as Chief Conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra (2013-2020), Principal Conductor of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain (2009–2013), and Principal Guest Conductor of the Mikhailovsky Theatre, where he began his career as Resident Conductor (1994–1997).
Vasily Petrenko was born in 1976 and started his music education at the St Petersburg Capella Boys Music School – Russia’s oldest music school. He then studied at the St Petersburg Conservatoire where he participated in masterclasses with such luminary figures as Ilya Musin, Mariss Jansons and Yuri Temirkanov.
He has worked with many of the world’s most prestigious orchestras including the Philharmonie Berlin, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, The London Symphony, London Philharmonic and Philharmonia Orchestra, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia (Rome), St Petersburg Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, Czech Philharmonic, NHK Symphony and Sydney Symphony orchestras. He has appeared at the Edinburgh Festival, Grafenegg Festival and made frequent appearances at the BBC Proms. Recent years have seen a series of highly successful North American debuts, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, and the San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, Montréal and St Louis Symphony orchestras.
Equally at home in the opera house, and with over thirty operas in his repertoire, Vasily Petrenko made his debuts in 2010 at Glyndebourne Festival Opera (“Macbeth”) and the Opéra de Paris (“Eugene Onegin”), and in recent seasons has also conducted at the Mikhailovsky Theatre, Zürich Opera and Bayerische Staatsoper. In the 19/20 season he also made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera New York, in a production of “The Queen of Spades”.
Vasily Petrenko has established a strongly defined profile as a recording artist. Amongst a wide discography, his Shostakovich symphony cycle for Naxos Records with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra has garnered worldwide acclaim. With the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, he has recently released cycles of Scriabin’s symphonies and Strauss’ tone poems.
In September 2017, Vasily Petrenko was honoured with the Artist of the Year award at the prestigious annual Gramophone Awards, one decade on from receiving their Young Artist of the Year award in October 2007. In 2010, he won the Male Artist of the Year at the Classical BRIT Awards and is only the second person to have been awarded Honorary Doctorates by both the University of Liverpool and Liverpool Hope University (in 2009), and an Honorary Fellowship of the Liverpool John Moores University (in 2012), awards which recognise the immense impact he has had on the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the city’s cultural scene.

Australian soprano Siobhan Stagg was a member of the Deutsche Oper, Berlin from 2013/14 until 2018/19 where her roles included Pamina Die Zauberflöte, Sophie Der Rosenkavalier, Blonde Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Gilda Rigoletto, Micaëla Carmen, Adele Die Fledermaus, Zerlina Don Giovanni, Musetta La bohème, Contessa di Folleville Il viaggio a Reims, Marguerite de Valois Les Huguenots and Waldvogel and Woglinde in The Ring Cycle conducted by Sir Simon Rattle.

Elsewhere she has sung the title role in Cendrillon for the Lyric Opera of Chicago; Pamina for the Royal Opera; Sophie Der Rosenkavalier for the Opernhaus Zurich; Mélisande for Australia’s Victorian Opera (for which she received the Green Room Award for Best Female Lead in an Opera); Gilda, Blonde and Cordelia in Aribert Reimann’s Lear for the Hamburgische Staatsoper; Najade Ariadne auf Naxos for the Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich; Blonde for the Dutch National Opera; staged performances of Mozart’s Requiem at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence; Woglinde for the Deutsche Staatsoper and Morgana Alcina and Marzelline Fidelio for the Grand Théâtre de Genève.

Highlights in Siobhan’s 2019/20 season include Mélisande for the Opera di Dijon; Tytania A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Pamina for the Deutsche Oper, Berlin; Giulietta Il giorno del regno for Garsingon Opera and staged performances of Mozart’s Requiem at the Adelaide Festival. On the concert platform she sings Strauss’ Vier letzte Lieder (Kristiansand Symfoniorkester/Nathalie Stutzmann & Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Sir Andrew Davis); Beethoven’s Missa Solmnis ( Sydney Symphony Orchestra/Donald Runnicles & Filarmonica del Teatro Comunale di Bologna/Asher Fisch) and his Symphony No. 9 (Bamberger Symphoniker/Asher Fisch); Ravel’s Shéhérazade (Stavanger Symphony Orchestra/Marc Soustrot); Debussy’s Ariettes Oubliées orch. Brett Dean (Orchestre national de Lyon/Karl-Heinz Steffens); Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 (Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra/Osmo Vänskä) and Bach’s Matthäus-Passion (Gürzenich-Orchester Köln/Nicholas Collon). She will also tour France with Ensemble Pygmalion/Raphaël Pichon to launch their recently released album of Mozart Arias.

Upcoming performances include her return to the Royal Opera and her debut with Opera Australia and the Glyndebourne Festival.

Highlights on the concert platform include Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem (Berliner Philharmoniker/Christian Thielemann), Zemlinsky’s Lyric Symphony at the BBC Proms (BBC Symphony Orchestra/Simone Young), Haydn’s Creation (Melbourne Symphony Orchestra/Sir Andrew Davis), Mozart arias with Rolando Villazon at the Salzburger Mozartwoche (Mozarteumorchester Salzburg/Kristiina Poska)and at the Salzburger Festspiele and Festival d’Aix-en-Provence (Ensemble Pygmalion/Raphaël Pichon) and a tour of Australia with Roberto Alagna.