program 2026
Kirill Petrenko honored with exclusive series of events
Tár
Director: Todd Field
American film (2022)
Screening: Wednesday 10 June, 19:00 – Cinemateket
The conductor and composer Lydia Tár (powerfully portrayed by Cate Blanchett) is a world-class artist and chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic. But she is also a monster and a capricious narcissist who abuses her power when a young female cellist auditions for the orchestra. Tár controls everything – until she no longer controls her own mind.
Todd Field places power games, musicality, control, and sexuality into a dramatic narrative machine that easily leaves the viewer (and listener) off balance. And although Lydia Tár as a woman represents something new in the traditionally male-dominated world of conducting, it becomes clear that the ghosts of the past still linger.
Introduction by Esben Tange, music communicator and Chair of the Board of the Léonie Sonning Music Foundation.
Tickets available from 25 March via Cinemateket.
Nous, L’orchestre de Paris
Director: Philippe Béziat
French film (2026)
Screening: Sunday 14 June, 16:30
Cinemateket
How can 80 people play together as one organism? How can a musician contribute to something greater than themselves? How can orchestral musicians perform together for decades without losing their enthusiasm? And what role does the conductor actually play in relation to the orchestra?
In an innovative way, the camera and microphones move among the musicians of the Orchestre de Paris, led by conductors Klaus Mäkelä, Herbert Blomstedt, Elim Chan and Daniel Harding. We are invited into the musicians’ thoughts, feelings and reflections – and into the very center of the music as it is created.
Introduction by Katrine Ganer Skaug, Artistic Director of the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra and Concert Hall and Vice Chair of the Léonie Sonning Music Foundation.
Tickets available from 25 March via the Cinemateket
Léonie Sonning Music Prize 2026
Kirill Petrenko & the Danish National Symphony Orchestra
Saturday 13 June at 7.30 pm
DR Koncerthuset
The charismatic chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, Kirill Petrenko, receives the Léonie Sonning Music Prize 2026 at this gala concert in the Concert Hall, where he will conduct the Danish National Symphony Orchestra for the first time in a magnificent programme of Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Strauss’s famous Also sprach Zarathustra.
The conductor – what does she actually do?
Seminar on the classical music conductor
Time: Friday 12 June, 16:00–22:00
Location: Concert Hall, Royal Danish Academy of Music
Program
16:00 – 16:30 The conductor at work – the audience as orchestra
- Welcome by Esben Tange
- Audience conducted by Magnus Larsson.
Through rehearsing well-known songs, the audience experiences firsthand what it means to be conducted – using the conductor’s toolbox: dynamics, tempo, balance, phrasing and interpretation.
16:30 – 17:10
Kirill Petrenko – a portrait
Presented by those who know him, have worked with him, and followed his career.
- Jesper Busk Sørensen and Emmanuel Pahud: Petrenko in Berlin
- Michael Schønwandt: From conductor to conductor
- A look at Vienna, Munich and Vorarlberg in Austria, where Petrenko’s career began
- Kirill Petrenko in concerts and interviews
17:20 – 17:50 Report from rehearsals with Kirill Petrenko and the Danish National Symphony Orchestra
- Meet young conducting students attending the rehearsals:
Leon Reimer
Korbinian Krol
Hjörtur Eggertsson
Gustav Aske Sønksen
Johanne Sofie Bech Madsen
With Christina Åstrand, concertmaster of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra.
17:50 – 18:00 Questions from the audience.
18:00 – 19:00 Dinner break. Sandwiches etc. The bar is open. Informal conversations with speakers.
The role of the conductor – then and now
- Video clips, interviews, live presentations and debate
19:00 – 19:25 The maestro of the 20th Century – Søren Schauser
- Leonard Bernstein – recipient of the Sonning Music Prize 1965. The ecstatic inspirer.
Carl Nielsen: Symphony No. 3 Espansiva with the Royal Danish Orchestra. - Sergiu Celibidache – recipient of the Sonning Music Prize 1970. Trance and seduction.
Ravel: Bolero with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra. - Herbert von Karajan – perfection, control and the conductor as star.
19.25 – 19.45: The conductor in the 21st Century
- Herbert Blomstedt – recipient of the Sonning Music Prize 2016. Spirit, authority and a life in music. Interview with Christina Åstrand.
- Simon Rattle – recipient of the Sonning Music Prize 2013. Curiosity and contagious engagement. Carl Nielsen: Symphony No. 4 The Inextinguishable with the Royal Danish Orchestra. Interview with John Kruse, principal clarinet.
19.45 – 20.00: Female conductors
- Hannah Howard Andresen – conductor and Master in Gender Studies, University of Oslo.
Marin Alsop, Susanna Mälkki and Elim Chan are among the many female conductors who have achieved international success today. But do women conductors still struggle against outdated perceptions of gender and musical leadership?
20.00 – 20.25: Coffee and cake.
20.25 – 20.45: The conducting musician
- Lars Ulrik Mortensen – recipient of the Sonning Music Prize 2007. 2007. The Baroque conductor.
- Barbara Hannigan, recipient of the Léonie Sonning Music Prize 2020. Soloist and conductor in one person.
- The symphony orchestra without a conductor – the concertmaster as leader.
20.45 – 20.55: We sing under the direction of Magnus Larsson. Concert!
20.55 -21.45: Panel discussion with Q&A – Kirill Petrenko, tradition and transformation in the role of the conductor
- Participants: Hannah Howard Andresen, Thomas Michelsen, Jesper Busk Sørensen, Christina Åstrand, Michael Schønwandt
Moderator: Benedikte Granvig
Find tickets here
More information
Kristina Sindberg
kristina@sindbergkommunikation.dk
Mobile 24860184