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Highly rated Venezuelan to succeed Vasily Petrenko from September 2021
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The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (RLPO) has announced that Domingo Hindoyan is to be its next chief conductor. The 40-year-old Venezuelan will begin his new role on Merseyside at the beginning of the 2021-22 season, taking over from Vasily Petrenko, who will become the orchestra’s conductor laureate.
Currently the principal guest conductor of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Hindoyan started his musical career as a violinist within Venezuela’s El Sistema music education network. He first turned his attention to conducting while studying at the Haute École de Musique de Genève in Switzerland and, from 201316, was assistant to Daniel Barenboim at Berlin’s Deutsche Staatsoper. His appointment in Liverpool will make him the latest in a line of El Sistema alumni to take up significant conducting posts worldwide, joining the likes of Gustavo Dudamel, music director of the LA
‘This orchestra is a great collective force formed by brilliant individuals’
Philharmonic, and Rafael Payare, former chief conductor of the Ulster Orchestra.
Hindoyan, who is married to the soprano Sonya Yoncheva, will have big shoes to fill in Liverpool. Appointed as a comparative unknown 29 year-old in 2005, the Leningrad-born Petrenko has been a huge success in his 15 years at the helm of the RLPO, bringing a new energy to the orchestra’s Philharmonic Hall seasons and releasing a string of acclaimed recordings – their disc of Tchaikovsky’s Symphonies Nos 1, 2 and 5 was named BBC Music Magazine Recording of the Year in 2017.
However, Hindoyan and his new players already know they enjoy each others’ company, as he first conducted them in a concert of Mozart and Beethoven last year. ‘Since the first time I worked with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, I encountered an amazing group of musicians whose warm personalities and passion for music shone through,’ he says. ‘This orchestra is a great collective force formed by brilliant individuals. What excited me was not only the orchestra but the vibrant city of Liverpool and its historic connection with music and sports. An orchestra is a fundamental ambassador for the arts, and together our priorities will be to preserve the great heritage of the music we perform, welcome audiences with unprecedented sounds and build the future for new generations with fruitful educational projects.’