Kirill Petrenko

Receives the Léonie Sonning Music Prize 2026

Next year, Kirill Petrenko will receive the historic honor and the 1 million DKK that accompany the Léonie Sonning Music Prize 2026. 


Since 2019, the Russian conductor has been chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, and he is world-renowned for his intense energy and sublime interpretations. 


The award ceremony will take place at a grand gala concert at DR Koncerthuset on June 13, 2026, where Petrenko and the DR Symphony Orchestra will perform music by Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, and Richard Strauss.

Next year’s recipient of Denmark’s largest music prize can hereby be revealed: The Léonie Sonning Music Prize 2026 will go to the charismatic Russian conductor Kirill Petrenko, who has been chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic since 2019.

From 1997 to 2018, Kirill Petrenko primarily conducted opera at a number of the world’s leading opera houses. He began his career at the Vienna Volksoper 1997, and just two years later was appointed Music Director of the Theater Meiningen. There, his landmark four-day presentation of Wagner’s Ring cycle earned him international acclaim.

From 2002 to 2007 Kirill Petrenko served as Music Director of the Komische Oper Berlin, and from 2013 to 2020 he held the prestigious position of General Music Director at the Bavarian State Opera, where his acclaimed productions attracted worldwide recognition. Among Kirill Petrenkos greatest artistic achievements as opera conductor is the performance of Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelung at the Bayreuth Festival in 2013.

The Léonie Sonning Music Prize was first awarded in 1959, and Petrenko joins a roster of recipients that includes Leonard Bernstein, Igor Stravinsky, and Miles Davis – as well as last year’s recipient, the Danish String Quartet.

The award is accompanied by no less than 1 million DKK (approx. €134,000), and the ceremony will take place at a grand gala concert at DR Koncerthuset on June 13, 2026. The event will mark Petrenko’s first collaboration with the DR Symphony Orchestra – as well as a rare chance to experience the sought-after conductor on Danish soil.

The concert will only be Petrenko’s second performance in Denmark. The first was in 2013, when he conducted Wagner’s The Valkyrie at an exuberantly, memorable concert with the Royal Danish Orchestra.

Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Strauss

Careful selections have been made for the gala concert. In Felix Mendelssohn’s overture The Hebrides, the orchestra and Petrenko enter a Nordic-tinged world steeped in mystery.

This is followed by Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto, which is brimming with high-voltage German Romanticism. Audiences can also look forward to experiencing Russian pianist Polina Osetinskaya as the evening’s soloist.

The concert concludes with a bang in the form of Richard Strauss’ tone poem Also sprach Zarathustra, in which the symphony orchestra is unleashed in full force, followed by the award ceremony.




ZORBA IL GRECO, ARENA DI VERONA