Manfred Honeck
conductor
About this Artist
Manfred Honeck has established himself as one of the world’s leading conductors, renowned for his distinctive and revelatory interpretations that have garnered international acclaim. As Music Director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, where he is in his 18th season, he continues to shape the orchestra’s artistic identity with a deep sense of purpose and passion. His tenure, extended through the 2027/28 season, has seen the orchestra flourish both artistically and as a cultural ambassador for the city of Pittsburgh. Celebrated at home and abroad, the orchestra has made guest appearances under his leadership at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, as well as the major venues in Europe and leading festivals such as the BBC Proms, Salzburg Festival, Musikfest Berlin, Lucerne Festival, Rheingau Music Festival, and Grafenegg Festival. In summer 2024, Honeck led the orchestra in a nine-city European Festivals Tour, beginning with their appearance as the only American orchestra at the prestigious Salzburg Festival and concluding at Vienna Konzerthaus.
Honeck’s successful tenure in Pittsburgh is extensively documented by a series of recordings on the Reference Recordings label, featuring works by Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Shostakovich, Richard Strauss, Tchaikovsky, and others. They have received widespread critical acclaim and multiple Grammy nominations, including a win for Best Orchestral Performance in 2018. In August 2025, he and the orchestra released Requiem: Mozart’s Death in Words and Music, an original concept imagining a Funeral Mass for Mozart, combining the composer’s Requiem with Gregorian chant, poetry, and other Mozart choral music.
Born in Austria, Manfred Honeck completed his musical training at the University of Music in Vienna. His many years of experience as a member of the viola section in the Vienna Philharmonic and Vienna State Opera Orchestra have had a lasting influence on his work as a conductor. He began his conducting career as an assistant to Claudio Abbado and as director of the Vienna Jeunesse Orchestra. Subsequently, he was engaged by the Zurich Opera House, where he was awarded the European Conducting Prize in 1993. He has since served as one of three principal conductors of the MDR Symphony Orchestra Leipzig, Music Director of the Norwegian National Opera, Principal Guest Conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic and Czech Philharmonic, and Chief Conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. In 2023, he was appointed Honorary Conductor by the Bamberg Symphony, following decades of close collaboration.
Honeck also enjoys a distinguished profile as an opera conductor. In his four seasons as General Music Director of the Staatsoper Stuttgart, he conducted premieres of operas by Berlioz, Mozart, Poulenc, Strauss, Verdi, and Wagner. He has also appearedat leading houses such as Semperoper Dresden, Komische Oper Berlin, Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels, Royal Opera of Copenhagen, and the Salzburg Festival.
As a guest conductor, Honeck is a regular presence with all leading international orchestras, including Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Staatskapelle Dresden, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, and the Vienna Philharmonic. In the US, he has conducted all major orchestras from New York to San Francisco.
In the 2025/26 season, Honeck records Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, “Resurrection” and Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8 with the Pittsburgh Symphony, in addition to leading a variety of American orchestral music as part of celebrations around America’s 250th anniversary.
Manfred Honeck holds honorary doctorates from several universities in the US and was awarded the honorary title of Professor by the Austrian Federal President. In 2018, the jury of the International Classical Music Awards declared him Artist of the Year.