Vasily Petrenko is the musical director of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London ( Conductor ) and principal of the European Union Youth Orchestra ( Conductor ). Born in 1976, he began his musical education in St. Petersburg at a very young age. He went on to study at the Conservatory with such figures as Ilya Musin, Mariss Jansons and Yuri Temirkanov.

He was Conductor Principal of the Royal LiverpoolPhilharmonic Orchestra (2006 - 2021), Conductor Principal of the OsloPhilharmonic Orchestra (2013-2020). He has worked with many leading international orchestras including Filarmonica della Scala Berlin, the Bavarian Radio Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhaus, London Symphony, LondonPhilharmonic, Philharmonia, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, LosAngeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra and the symphony orchestras of San Francisco, Boston, Chicago and Montreal. He has appeared at the Edinburgh Festival, the BBC Proms as well as Glyndebourne, the Opéra National deParis, the Opernhaus Zürich, the Bayerische Staatsoper and the MET in New York.

Vasily Petrenko has also established a strong recording profile. In a vast catalogue of recordings his cycles of symphonies by Šostakóvič, Rachmaninov and Elgar with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra stand out. With the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra he has recently released cycles of Alexander Scriabin's symphonies, Richard Strauss poems, and selected symphonies by Prokofiev and Myaskovsky.

In 2017 he was honoured with the Artist of the Year award at the annualGramophone Awards, a decade after receiving the Young Artist ofthe Year Award. He has received honorary doctorates from both the University of Liverpool and Liverpool Hope University (in 2009), and an Honorary Fellowship from Liverpool John Moores University (in 2012), awards that recognise his involvement with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and on the city's cultural scene.