Hans Petri has always been at the forefront of technology in music and arts, with a strong belief that new media can enhance the viewer’s experience and enjoyment of cultural content. With an excellent track record in television production, and having produced a number of large-scale multimedia projects, which also won prestigious awards, he founded Opus Arte in 2000 to produce classical music and arts programming for TV, DVD and cinema.

Hans Petri produced more than 300 highly acclaimed music and arts programmes for worldwide public broadcasters in the Netherlands, France, Germany and the UK. His recording of Handel’s Messiah with the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge received a Golden Angel Award in Hollywood for the Best Classical Music Programme. Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti, Messiaen’s St Francois D’Assise and Tan Dun’s Marco Polo, were nominated for Grammy Awards and many productions received the highly acclaimed MIDEM, Gramophone and the Diapason D’Or Awards.

Always ahead of the curve in technology, Hans Petri led the way in High Definition recordings and the release of Blu-ray discs, with the Opus Arte catalogue being distributed throughout the world. It was the first classical label to release titles on the Blu-ray Disc format and one of the first to screen opera and ballet via HDTV and in digital cinemas worldwide.

In May 2007 the Royal Opera House purchased Opus Arte in a ground-breaking deal that made it the first Opera House to acquire its own DVD production & distribution company.

Having handed Opus Arte over to new management in January 2010, he formed Petri Arts Consultants, together with his wife Tricia Petri-Clark. He has since worked closely with Opera Australia as Commercial Director of Digital Media and Executive Producer of the first Opera on Sydney Harbour and, with Australian Ballet, as advisor on multi media releases of their ballet productions.

As one of the initiators of live cinema in 2009, Hans more recently started the ‘Window on the World’ project, in collaboration with Rotary Scotland, to provide cinemas, village halls and community centres in remote areas with projection and satellite systems. These communities can then also have the opportunity to enjoy live event cinema programmes from the Royal Opera, Royal Ballet, National Theatre, etc.

As a producer Hans always tried to achieve the highest artistic and technical quality in his productions and the Opus Arte catalogue and, in 1992, he was the first to produce every programme in the High Definition format. Now Hans is really excited by the possibilities provided by recent innovations in technology to increase the quality even further, enabling him to continue with his passion of sharing wonderful performing arts with the larger public through PetriArts Productions.