Austrian conductor Manfred Honeck began his musical training as a viola player at the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna. When he graduated, he joined the Vienna State Opera Orchestra and the Vienna Philharmonic as a violist. Through his position in these orchestras he gained his first conducting role with the Vienna Jeunesse Musicales Orchester and then the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, also based in Vienna. In 1991, he began a position at Zurich Opera House, also working with the MDR Symphony Orchestra in Leipzig, Norwegian National Opera and the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra in Oslo, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Stockholm and the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra in Prague.
In 2007 he was employed as music director of the Staatsoper, Stuttgart where he directed operas by a wide range of composers including Guiseppe Verdi, Richard Strauss and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He is also musical director of the Internationale Wolfegger Konzerte and has directed operas for many other European Opera Companies including Semperoper in Dresden, the Royal Opera of Copenhagen and at the Salzburg Festival. On the concert platform, Honeck has taken the position of guest conductor with many leading European orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Vienna Philharmonic and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. In America, he has worked with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Boston Symphony Orchestra amongst others.
Honeck's main position as conductor has been as music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, where he has been in residence since 2008. He is renowned for his individual interpretations of works and his performances with the orchestra are world-renowned. They regularly perform throughout America and the rest of the world in major venues including Carnegie Hall and at international events such as Lucerne Festival, BBC Proms, Musikfest Berlin and many others. Honeck's recording output with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra has been extensive, both in live and studio recordings. Highlights include a series of symphonies by Anton Bruckner, Ludwig van Beethoven, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Dmitri Shostakovich. Several of these recordings have been nominated for Grammy Awards, with the first to win being his 2017 recording of Dmitri Shostakovich's 'Symphony No.5' and Samuel Barber's 'Adagio'.
