Kirill Petrenko was born in Omsk in 1972. After completing his studies in Vienna, he obtained a first engagement as assistant and Kapellmeister at Vienna Volksoper. From 1999 to 2002 he was general music director at the Theatre in Meinigen, where he attracted considerable interest internationally above all for his reading of Der Ring des Nibelungen, directed by Christine Mielitz and designed by Alfred Hrdlicka in 2001. From 2002 to 2007 Kirill Petrenko was general music director at Komische Oper Berlin. While he was at Meiningen and Berlin his international career flourished rapidly. Important debuts and guest conductor engagements have included Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Vienna State Opera, Semperoper in Dresden, Gran Teatre de Liceu, Opéra de Paris, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Munich State Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, Theater an der Wien and Frankfurt Opera. In 2006 to 2008 he collaborated with director Peter Stein on the creation of a cycle of Pushkin operas in Lyon. Among the most important orchestras which Kirill Petrenko has conducted so far are the Berlin Philharmonic, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Bavarian State Orchestra, the WDR Cologne Orchestra, the Hamburg Philharmonic, the NDR Symphony Orchestra Hamburg, the Museumsorchester Frankfurt, the RSO Vienna, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra Santa Cecilia in Rome and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Kirill Petrenko also conducts concerts at the Salzburg and Bregenz festivals. In September 2013 he will take over as general music director of Bavarian State Opera in Munich.