The Mariinsky Chorus performs in most of the operas at the Mariinsky Theatre. Each season, they appear in over 250 opera performances. The chorus has taken part in a number of concerts and recordings for the Mariinsky label. Their repertoire currently encompasses a vast array of works ranging from numerous Russian classical operas to Italian, French, German, and Czech operas as well as various choral pieces including Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and Mass in b minor, Haydn’s The Creation, Mozart's Requiem, Verdi’s Requiem, Orff’s Carmina Burana, and Rachmannov’s Vespers and The Bells. The chorus appeared at the world premieres of Gubaidulina’s St. John Passion and St. John Easter, Karetnikov’s The Mystery of Apostle Paul, Smelkov’s The Brothers Karamazov, and Shchedrin’s The Lefthander and A Christmas Tale. In 2011 the Mariinsky Chorus won the International Classic Music Awards (ICMA) with recordings of Stravinsky’s Les Noces and Oedipus Rex.
Andrei Petrenko has been the Mariinsky Theatre’s Principal Chorus Master since 2000. He graduated from the Leningrad State Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatoire, specializing in choral, opera, and symphony conducting. His performing career began in 1981 as a production conductor at the Leningrad State Musical Comedy Theatre; he subsequently became the Director of the Smolny Cathedral Chorus and was a guest conductor of the Congress Orchestra of St. Petersburg. From 1989 to 2000 he taught choral and symphony conducting at the St. Petersburg State Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatoire, in addition to holding international masterclasses. Petrenko has toured to more than twenty countries with various choruses and symphony orchestras. Under his baton, the Mariinsky Chorus has performed at prestigious concert venues throughout Russia and many other European countries. He has been a guest conductor of the Choeur de Radio France since 2008.