Manfred Honeck

Manfred Honeck was born in Austria and studied music at the Academy of Music in Vienna. An accomplished violinist and violist, he spent more than ten years as a member of the Vienna Philharmonic and the Vienna State Opera Orchestra. It is this experience that has heavily influenced his conducting and has helped give it a distinctive stamp.

Manfred Honeck was appointed the ninth Music Director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in January 2007, and began his tenure at the start of the 2008-2009 season. Only two years later his contract was extended until 2016. Following their successful European Tour in 2010 and the European Festival Tour 2011 with appearances  at the major music festivals, such as BBC Proms, Lucerne, Grafenegg, Rheingau, Schleswig-Holstein or Musikfest Berlin,  Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra will return to Europe in October/November 2012. Manfred Honeck's successful work in Pittsburgh is captured on CD by the Japanese label Exton. So far, Mahler's Symphonies Nos. 1, 3 and 4, Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 and Richard Strauss' Ein Heldenleben have been released to critical acclaim.

From 2007 to 2011, Manfred Honeck was Music Director of the Staatsoper Stuttgart where he conducted premieres including Berlioz's Les Troyens, Mozart's Idomeneo, Verdi's Aida, Richard Strauss' Rosenkavalier, Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites and Wagner's Lohengrin and Parsifal as well as numerous symphonic concerts. His operatic guest appearances include Semperoper Dresden, Komische Oper Berlin, Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels, Royal Opera of Copenhagen, the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg, the Salzburg Festival and the Verbier Festival.

Honeck commenced his conducting career as assistant to Claudio Abbado at the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra in Vienna. Subsequently, he was engaged by the Zurich Opera House from 1991 - 1996, where he was awarded the prestigious European Conductor’s Award in 1993.  In 1996, Honeck began a three-year stint as one of three main conductors of the MDR Symphony Orchestra Leipzig, and in 1997, he served as Music Director at the Norwegian National Opera in Oslo for a year. A highly successful tour of Europe with the Oslo Philharmonic marked the beginning of a close collaboration with this orchestra, which consequently appointed him Principal Guest Conductor, a post he held from 1998-2004.  From 2000 to 2006, Maestro Honeck was Music Director of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and served as Principal Guest Conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra from 2008 to 2011.

As a guest conductor, Manfred Honeck has worked with such major European orchestras as the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and the Vienna Philharmonic, and in the U.S. with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra Washington and Boston Symphony Orchestra. Guest engagements of the season 2011/2012 will see him return to his earlier places of activity in Stockholm, Oslo, Prague and Stuttgart and he will also conduct other prestigious orchestras including Staatskapelle Dresden, Bamberg Symphony, Orchestre de Paris, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and Chicago Symphony. He will moreover appear at the Beijing Music Festival and return to Verbier.

In 2010, Manfred Honeck earned an honorary doctorate from St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. Apart from his numerous tasks as conductor, he has been Artistic Director of the "International Concerts Wolfegg" in Germany for more than fifteen years.