Manfred Honeck

Conductor Manfred Honeck's conducting career rapidly grew through the 1990s after he learned conducting from the inside as an orchestral musician. In 1987, conductor Claudio Abbado invited Honeck to assist him in conducting the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra in Vienna. Honeck made his operatic debut with the Vienna Volksoper in 1989, leading Johann Strauss Jr.'s Die Fledermaus. In 1996, Honeck became the chief conductor of the MDR Symphony Orchestra of Leipzig. In 1997, he was appointed music director of the Norwegian National Opera, and in 1998, he was named the principal guest conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic. In 2008, Honeck began a tenure with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra that has been extended through the mid-2020s. Honeck and the orchestra remained busy, issuing recordings of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 in 2021 and Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68 ("Pastoral"), in 2022.