Biography

Manfred Honeck

Current as of July 2023

Manfred Honeck is one of the world’s leading conductors. His distinctive and revelatory interpretations receive great international acclaim. Since the 2008/09 season he has been music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra; in September 2021 he extended his contract with the PSO until the end of the 2027/28 season. He and the orchestra appear regularly at Carnegie Hall and the Lincoln Center in New York, at the major music venues of Europe and at international festivals such as the BBC Proms, the Beethovenfest Bonn, the Lucerne Festival and the Salzburg Festival. Their successful collaboration is documented on numerous recordings, which have received many outstanding reviews and been awarded notable prizes, among them a Grammy for ‘Best Orchestral Performance 2018’.

Born in Austria, Manfred Honeck completed his musical training at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. His many years as a member of the Vienna Philharmonic and of the orchestra of the Vienna State Opera have strongly influenced his work as a conductor. He began his conducting career as assistant to Claudio Abbado in Vienna, and went on to become principal conductor at the Zurich Opera. He won the European Conducting Prize for his work in Switzerland.

After serving as one of the three principal conductors of the MDR Symphony Orchestra in Leipzig and as principal guest conductor of both the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Czech Philharmonic, he was appointed chief conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. From 2007 to 2011 Manfred Honeck was general music director of the Stuttgart Opera, where he conducted new productions of works by Berlioz, Mozart, Poulenc, Strauss, Verdi and Wagner. He has also been artistic director of the International Wolfegg Concerts in Germany for many years.

As a guest conductor Manfred Honeck has worked with all the leading international orchestras, including the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris, the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and the Vienna Philharmonic. In the US he has conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Symphony Orchestras of Chicago, Boston and San Francisco.

Manfred Honeck has received honorary doctorates from several US universities, and has been awarded the professional title of Professor by the Austrian Federal President. In 2018 the expert jury of the International Classical Music Awards honoured him as Artist of the Year.

read more collapse

Photos and Videos

Manfred Honeck conductor
open gallery
Manfred Honeck conductor
open gallery
Manfred Honeck conductor
open gallery
Manfred Honeck conductor
open gallery
Manfred Honeck conductor
open gallery
open gallery
open gallery