Manfred Honeck Conductor

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, an experience that has heavily influenced his conducting and has helped give it a distinctive stamp. He commenced his career as conductor of Vienna's Jeunesse Orchestra, which he co-founded, and as assistant to Claudio Abbado at the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra in Vienna. Subsequently, he was engaged by the Zurich Opera House, where he was bestowed the prestigious European Conductor's Award in 1993.


In 1996, Manfred 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 for several years. From 2000 to 2006 he was Music Director of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra Stockholm. In 2007 Manfred Honeck assumed his post as Music Director of the Staatsoper Stuttgart and, in addition, became the Principal Guest Conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra in 2008. After several highly successful guest appearances leading the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, he was appointed its ninth Music Director and began his tenure at the start of the 2008/2009 season.


At the Staatsoper Stuttgart Manfred Honeck conducted premieres of Berlioz's Les Troyens, Mozart's Idomeneo, Verdi's Aida, Strauss's Rosenkavalier as well as Wagner's Lohengrin and Parsifal. 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.

As a guest conductor Manfred Honeck has worked with major European orchestras such as the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Vienna Philharmonic and in the US with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra Washington and Boston Symphony Orchestra. Guest engagements of the season 2010/2011 will lead Manfred Honeck to orchestras such as Vienna Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Swedish Radio Symphony, Staatskapelle Dresden and he will also return to Verbier.

Manfred Honeck's main focus in the current season is on his obligations in Stuttgart and Pittsburgh. In Stuttgart, he will conduct premieres of Die Fledermaus and Dialogues des Carmélites and four symphony concerts. After highly successful performances with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra last season, including his debut at Carnegie Hall and a highly acclaimed tour of European musical capitals in May 2010 including Paris and Vienna, in 2010/2011 he will continue both his multi-year Mahler cycle and the new "Beethoven Project", a series of concerts of all of Beethoven's symphonies and concertos. He has lead the orchestra in two critically acclaimed CDs (Strauss's Ein Heldenleben and Mahler's First Symphony) released on the Japanese label Octavia/Exton.

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

Date Last Edited: 2nd August 2010