End-of-year concert with Kirill Petrenko and Jonas Kaufmann

Kirill Petrenko has been chief conductor and artistic director of the Berliner Philharmoniker since the 2019/20 season. Born in Omsk in Siberia, he received his training first in his home town and later in Austria. He established his conducting career in opera with positions at the Meininger Theater and the Komische Oper Berlin. From 2013 to 2020, Kirill Petrenko was general music director of Bayerische Staatsoper. He has also made guest appearances at the world’s leading opera houses, including Wiener Staatsoper, Covent Garden in London, the Opéra national in Paris, the Metropolitan Opera in New York and at the Bayreuth Festival. Moreover, he has conducted the major international symphony orchestras – in Vienna, Munich, Dresden, Paris, Amsterdam, London, Rome, Chicago, Cleveland and Israel. Since his debut in 2006, a variety of programmatic themes have emerged in his work together with the Berliner Philharmoniker. These include work on the orchestra’s core Classical-Romantic repertoire, most notably with Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony when he took up his post. Unjustly forgotten composers such as Josef Suk and Erich Wolfgang Korngold are another of Kirill Petrenko’s interests. Russian works are also highlighted, with performances of Tchaikovsky’s operas Mazeppa, Iolanta and The Queen of Spades attracting particular attention recently.

Jonas Kaufmann is one of the most prominent musicians in the classical music world and is equally at home at the Vienna State Opera, the Metropolitan Opera in New York and at London’s Royal Opera House. The versatile singer is as sought after for Italian and French repertoire as for German roles: He sang Lohengrin at Bayreuth and at Milan’s La Scala, was heard in Massenet’s Werther in Paris, Vienna and New York and appeared as Otello and Tristan at the Bavarian State Opera under Kirill Petrenko. The Munich-born tenor has been a guest with the Berliner Philharmoniker several times since 2003, including as Don José in performances of Bizet’s Carmen, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle. Along with his acclaimed appearances in operas and orchestral concerts, Jonas Kaufmann is also an outstanding lieder singer. He was invited by New York’s Met in 2011 to give the first solo recital since Luciano Pavarotti. The singer studied at the University of Music and Theatre in Munich, followed by master classes with Hans Hotter, James King and Josef Metternich. Recordings by Jonas Kaufmann, who was named an Austrian Kammersänger in 2022, have received numerous awards. In addition, he was chosen as Singer of the Year several times by musical journals such as Opernwelt, Diapason and Musical America.