Born in 1976, Vasily Petrenko studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatoire, and has also participated in masterclasses with Ilya Musin, Mariss Jansons and Yuri Temirkanov. Following his success in international competitions, including First Prize in the Sixth Cadaqués International Conducting Competition in Spain, he was appointed Chief Conductor of the St. Petersburg State Academic Symphony Orchestra (2004-2007). He is Chief Conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra (since 2013-14), Chief Conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (a position he adopted in 2009 as a continuation of his period as Principal Conductor, which started 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). Vasily Petrenko has also served as 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 (1994-97). Vasily Petrenko has worked with many of the world's prestigious orchestras, including the London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Czech Philharmonic, NHK Symphony Tokyo, Sydney Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, the San Francisco, Boston and Chicago Symphony Orchestras and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. His festival appearances include the BBC Proms, Edinburgh, Grafenegg, Aspen and Ravinia. Equally at home in the opera house, he has conducted at the Glyndebourne Opera Festival, Paris Opera, Hamburg State Opera, Mikhailovsky Theatre, Zurich Opera and the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. His recordings have garnered prestigious awards. In 2007 Vasily Petrenko was named Young Artist of the Year at the annual Gramophone Awards and in 2010 he won the Male Artist of the Year at the Classical Brit Awards. He is the second person to have been awarded Honorary Doctorates by both the University of Liverpool and Liverpool Hope University (2009), and an Honorary Fellowship of the Liverpool John Moores University (2012).