Conducting is a profession of lifelong learning: Vasily Petrenko on nurturing talent & broadening horizons

Vasily Petrenko’s Academy for Young Conductors in Yerevan, Armenia (Photo: © Primavera Foundation of Armenia)

Vasily Petrenko’s Academy for Young Conductors takes place each year in Yerevan, Armenia. The Academy brings together Vasily Petrenko, Music Director of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and a select group of emerging conductors from around the world for an intensive week of masterclasses, individual tuition and orchestral work with the Armenian National Philharmonic Orchestra. This year, the orchestra marks its centennial anniversary, making the 2026 edition a particularly significant occasion. 

Following the success of his 2026 Academy for Young Conductors, Vasily Petrenko reflects on what it takes to shape the next generation of conductors – and what he wishes he’d been taught in his early years.

"This week, as I wrapped up the Academy for Young Conductors in the Armenian capital of Yerevan for another year, I was struck by a recurring thought: I wish something like this had been organised when I was a student conductor. The moments I have seen across the last four days when Academy participants were able to ask questions openly and get proper answers would have been immensely valuable to me as a developing conductor – they might even have cut my journey of musical development significantly shorter. That’s what the Academy for Young Conductors is about: using what I’ve learned over decades of experience on the conductor’s podium to nurture young conductors and support their growth. Not everyone has to learn ‘the hard way’.

"Since we launched the Academy in 2024, recognition of the programme has grown – we received applications from 22 countries this year – and the support we offer has grown with it. Participants on the 2026 programme rehearsed with the National Philharmonic Orchestra who co-organised the course alongside the Primavera Foundation Armenia and I. We have been working together across the last two years (and beyond) to help young musicians develop and progress to next stage of their career – and, ultimately, their life.

Vasily Petrenko (Photo: Ben Wright)

"In today’s world, there is unfortunately not enough attention paid to culture and, because of that, budgets tighten and it is more and more difficult for orchestras and concert organisations to take risks. These organisations, therefore, end up offering fewer and fewer chances for the young conductors. My Academy offers a rare chance for developing conductors to be gain visibility on the world stage here in Armenia.

"As well as supporting the country’s future conductors, the Academy works to nurture Armenia’s audiences of tomorrow too, with the Academy’s gala concert free to attend and specifically aimed at young people. We feel the future generation is key to promoting classical music, promoting conducting – and music – as a career.

"The Academy’s deep roots in Armenia are hugely significant – both for me as a conductor, and for what we’re able to offer. I first visited the country in the 1980s and was immediately struck by the warmth and hospitality of its people. This year, five out of six Academy participants were visiting Armenia for the first time, so the Primavera Foundation Armenia organised a sightseeing tour – it was all they talked about the following day.

"For me, travel has always been a source of enrichment for both my cultural understanding and my musical development: beyond the notes, a conductor has to learn a lot about context and history. We learn about each composer’s life, when each piece was written, why it was written, what the composers wanted to say – not just musically, but philosophically and historically. I began travelling at a very young age, first in a boys’ choir, and then later on as a singer and a conductor. To me, every trip was a chance for me to reach other cultures, see other traditions, other ways of life. This diversity of cultures in the world is what makes our planet so unique. I hope travel has enriched this year’s Academy participants too. As well as their experience with a professional orchestra and my advice, what I hope participants take away from their time at the academy is a piece of the culture of Armenia – and of its rich cultural and classical heritage – and I hope they will share it with the world.

"Conducting is a profession of lifelong learning. Every day we're trying to be better than yesterday, and through the Academy for Young Conductors we’re working to make that learning process easier to progress through. Since our launch in 2024, our goals have remained the same - but we now have a clearer vision of how we can support even more young musicians.

"In the future, I would like our programme to grow into a wider Academy for young musicians and perhaps even a festival, something like Verbier, Aspen or Tanglewood. With our committed co-organisers, and talented participants – particularly those hailing from Armenia – it’s just a matter of time."

 

Armenian State Symphony Orchestra celebrates its 15th anniversary

The Armenian State Symphony Orchestra and Sergey Smbatyan at the Barbican in January 2020

The Armenian State Symphony Orchestra, which we heard on its recent visit to the Barbican [see my review], is celebrating its 15th anniversary. Founded as the State Youth Orchestra of Armenia by conductor Sergey Smbatyan, the orchestra is now the state symphony orchestra with Smbatyan as artistic director and chief conductor. They plan to mark the anniversary on 25 January 2021 with a gala concert at Aram Khachaturian Concert Hall in Yerevan, Armenia.

The orchestra performs around 50 concerts per year, along with other events, as well as a number of festivals. In 2010, Sergey Smbatyan started the Armenian Composing Art Festival, with each year dedicated to a particular Armenian composer, including Tigran Chukhajyan (1837-1898), who created the first opera institution in the Ottoman Empire and wrote the first Armenian opera Arshak II (1868) and what may be the first Turkish language opera Arif'in Hilesi (1874), Romanos Melikyan (1883-1935), Haro Stepanyan (1897-1966), Grigor Yeghazarian (1908-1998), Ghazaros Saryan (1920-1998), Arno Babajanyan (1921-1983), Edvard Mirzoyan (1921-2012), Avet Terteryan (1929-1994), and Edgar Hovhannisyan (1930-1998), There is also the Khachaturian International Festival, which was established in 2013, and the Khachaturian International Competition which in 2020 was devoted to the violin.

They also run an education project which 'strives to incite curiosity, understanding and liking for classical music among high school students', and recent charitable endeavours have been centred on the Armenian Christians fleeing the war in Artsakh (which is currently part of Azerbaijan) with open-air fundraising concerts in Yerevan and four-day New Year charity screening-and-concert of the Disney animated film Frozen for children from Artsakh and Armenia  affected by war, with the scores of the animated film played live by the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra.

Full details from the orchestra's website.

Cultural support and technological daring: the 16th Khachaturian International Competition launches, taking place entirely on-line

Press conference launching the
16th Khachturian International Competition

The 16th Khachaturian International Competition began on Saturday (6 June 2020), opening with a press conference with performances starting today and running until the final on 15 June. The competition has taken place each June in Yerevan, Armenia every year since 2003, alternating categories of cello, violin, piano and conducting. This year focuses on the violin, but this year is also somewhat different as the entire competition is taking place on line.

At the press conference the speakers in Yerevan, Armen Smbatyan (president of the board of trustees of the competition), Arayik Harutyunyan (Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of the Republic of Armenia), Eduard Tadevosyan (artistic director and first violin of the Komitas String Quartet and chairman of the jury), emphasised the importance of music in Armenian culture and the role the competition plays in this, particularly at the present time with the losses due to COVID19. But also the competition promotes the music of the Armenian composer Aram Khachaturian (1903-1978) whose Violin Concerto (written in 1940) is a feature of this year's competition.

That the competition can take place on-line is due to a number of technological innovations, and all the speakers emphasised the challenges that had been overcome and the journey for both the competition and the competitors. The first two rounds are with piano, but the final round is with orchestra. A new mobile app has been developed which has enabled the competitors to create recordings and submit them, and the jury members (also distributed around the world) to listen to and watch the recordings. For the final round, there is a bigger technological challenge, how to synchronise each soloist's performance with the orchestra, and for this Artificial Intelligence (AI) is being used.

By going on-line and relying so heavily on technological developments, the 16th Khachaturian International Competition is somewhat taking a leap in the dark, but so far all challenges have been overcome and there has been a warm response from the competitors. And by being daring, the competition is showing the way for others.

I should add a word of congratulations to Sargis Nalghranyan, who hosted the press conference, acting as moderator and translator, as well as deftly dealing with occasional gremlins.

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The competition website has full details of the schedule, with a live stream of performances.