Born in Omsk, western Siberia, Kirill Petrenko is one of the most sought-after conductors of his generation. Following an engagement as Kapellmeister at the Vienna Volksoper, he was general music director at the Theatre in Meiningen from 1999 to 2002, and at the Komische Oper Berlin from September 2002 to July 2007; the opera productions and concerts he conducted at the latter house were particularly well received. Since the season 2007/08 Kirill Petrenko has worked freelance and has guest-conducted at all the major opera houses internationally, e.g. the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, the Teatro Comunale di Firenze, the State Opera in Dresden, Frankfurt Opera, the Royal Opera House in London, Opera de Lyon, Munich State Opera, the New York Met, Opera Bastille in Paris, Vienna State Opera and the Theater an der Wien. On the concert podium he works with leading orchestras, conducting the Berlin, Hamburg and Munich philharmonics, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Bundesjugendorchester, Cleveland Orchestra, the Frankfurt Museum Orchestra, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the London Symphony and Philharmonic orchestras, the MDR Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the WDR Symphony Orchestra, the NDR Symphony Orchestra, the RSO Vienna and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, among others. He has moreover worked at Dresden, Florence, Genoa, Lisbon, Madrid and at the Salzburg Festival.