Vasily Petrenko is set to become Music Director of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO). The 42-year-old Russian conductor will commence his tenure at the beginning of the 2021–22 Season, initially for five years. His appointment stands as a major landmark in the Orchestra’s history, signalling its determination to broaden the audience for orchestral music while enhancing its reputation as one of the world’s most versatile ensembles.
With a celebrated career encompassing five decades, Pinchas Zukerman reigns as one of today’s most sought-after and versatile musicians – a violin and viola soloist, conductor and chamber musician. He is renowned as a virtuoso, admired for the expressive lyricism of his playing, singular beauty of tone and impeccable musicianship, which can be heard throughout his discography of over 100 albums. A devoted teacher and champion of young musicians, he has served as chair of the Pinchas Zukerman Performance Program at the Manhattan School of Music for twenty-five years.
Alexander Shelley succeeded Pinchas Zukerman as Music Director of Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra (NACO) in September 2015. The ensemble has since been praised as ‘an orchestra transformed … hungry, bold, and unleashed’ (Ottawa Citizen) and Alexander Shelley’s programming credited for turning the orchestra ‘almost overnight … into one of the more audacious orchestras in North America’ (Maclean’s Magazine).
Grzegorz Nowak is the Permanent Associate Conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) in London, promoted to this position in January 2015 after serving for seven years as the Orchestra’s Principal Associate Conductor. He has led the RPO on tours to Switzerland, Turkey and Armenia, as well as giving numerous concerts throughout the UK. His RPO recordings include Mendelssohn’s ‘Scottish’ and ‘Italian’ Symphonies, Shostakovich’s Symphony No.5, Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, Dvořák’s Symphonies Nos.6–9, all of the symphonies of Schumann, and the complete symphonies and major orchestral works of Brahms and Tchaikovsky.
