Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
For more than 125 years, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra has been an essential part of Pittsburgh’s cultural landscape and is renowned as one of the world’s finest orchestras. The orchestra is credited with a rich history of engaging the world’s leading conductors and musicians, and a deep commitment to the Pittsburgh region and its people. Since 2008, the Pittsburgh Symphony has been led by Music Director Manfred Honeck, whose unmistakable, distinctive, and revelatory interpretations receive great international acclaim. In September 2021, the Orchestra announced the six-year extension of Manfred Honeck’s contract as Music Director, running through the 2027/28 season. Celebrated both at home and abroad, Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra are one of the most frequently toured North American orchestras and are cultural ambassadors for the City of Pittsburgh and the United States.
Heading the list of internationally recognized conductors to have led the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is Victor Herbert, Music Director between 1898 and 1904. Preceding Herbert were Emil Paur (1904-1910), Elias Breeskin (1928-1930) and Antonio Modarelli (1930-1937). The orchestra’s solidification as an American institution took place in the late 1930s under the direction of Otto Klemperer and Fritz Reiner (1938-1948). The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s standard of excellence was maintained and enhanced through William Steinberg (1952-1976). André Previn (1976-1984) led the orchestra to new heights through tours, recordings, and television (PBS series, Previn and the Pittsburgh). Lorin Maazel began his relationship with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in 1984 as Music Consultant and was Music Director from 1988-1996. From 1997-2004, Mariss Jansons furthered the artistic growth of the orchestra, and upon his departure, the orchestra created an innovative leadership model with Artistic Advisor Sir Andrew Davis, Principal Guest Conductor Yan Pascal Tortelier and Guest Conductor Chair Marek Janowski. These three conductors formed the orchestra’s primary artistic leadership until January 2007, when the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra selected Honeck to take the reins at the start of the 2008/09 season.
The Pittsburgh Symphony has a notable history of championing new American works. The Orchestra premiered Leonard Bernstein’s Symphony No. 1 in 1944, John Adams’ Short Ride in a Fast Machine in 1986, and Mason Bates’ Resurrexit in 2018 to celebrate Manfred Honeck’s 60th birthday. In the 2021/22 season, Manfred Honeck led five world premieres, with five commissions by the Pittsburgh Symphony including works by Michael Daugherty and David Ludwig. Throughout the 2022/23 season, Manfred Honeck will lead 10 wide-ranging programs on the Orchestra’s classical subscription series, including three world premieres and seven Pittsburgh premieres. A highlight of the season will be Manfred Honeck’s dramatic conception of Requiem: Mozart’s Death in Words and Music, featuring an all-start vast of vocalists. In 2023/2024, Manfred Honeck conducted ten multifaceted programs and several special projects in Pittsburgh, including several world premieres and commissioned works: Katherine Balch, Samy Moussa and the double concerto for oboe and horn by Michael Daugherty. Eleven artists will make their debut with the PSO in the 2024/2025 season, including pianists Tom Borrow and Vikingur Ólafsson and cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason. Four world premieres and PSO commissions by composers such as Lera Auerbach and Hannah Ishizaki will also be presented.
The Pittsburgh Symphony has a long and distinguished history of touring both domestically and overseas since 1896. With approximately 40 international tours, including to Europe and to South America, a Far East Tour in 2002 marked first-time concerts for the orchestra in Kuala Lumpur and Australia. The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra was the first American orchestra to perform at the Vatican in January 2004 for the late Pope John Paul II, as part of the Pontiff’s Silver Jubilee celebration. In May 2009, the orchestra embarked on a four-concert tour of Asia, a trip which included debut performances in Shanghai, China and Kaohsiung, Taiwan, in addition to the first stop in Beijing, China since 1987.
Following the successful first European tour with Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in 2010, six more followed in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2022. The most recent tour in 2024 took the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and its Music Director to 10 European cities: Grafenegg, Merano, Dortmund, Düsseldorf, Hamburg (2x), Cologne, Wiesbaden, Vienna and, as the only American orchestra, to the Salzburg Festival. In 2022, the orchestra celebrated the 75th anniversary of its first international tour.
In August 2022, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra led by Music Director Manfred Honeck will resume international touring for the first time in three years, as the orchestra celebrates the 75th anniversary of its first international tour with three weeks of concerts in Europe. The orchestra will visit Cologne, Dresden, Düsseldorf, Essen, Grafenegg, Hamburg, Ljubljana and Wiesbaden, and close the Salzburg Festival, the only American orchestra invited to perform at that festival. This tour marks Manfred Honeck’s 14th tour with the Pittsburgh Symphony.
The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra also enjoys an equally distinguished record of domestic tours, which over the years have showcased the orchestra in all of America’s major cities and music centers, including frequent performances at Carnegie Hall in New York (dating from 1900) and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra has a long and illustrious history in the areas of recordings and radio concerts. As early as 1936, the Pittsburgh Symphony has been broadcast coast-to-coast, receiving increased national attention in 1982 through its series of network radio broadcasts by Public Radio International, produced by WQED-FM 89.3 in Pittsburgh.
Starting with the release of its first commercial recording in 1941, the Pittsburgh Symphony discography has hundreds of critically acclaimed recordings, released by prestigious labels including Pentatone, EMI, EXTON, Angel, CBS, Philips, MCA, New World, Nonesuch, Sony Classical, Telarc and Deutsche Grammophon.
Since 2013 Manfred Honeck’s successful work with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra has been captured in thirteen recordings released by Reference Recordings on the PittsburghLive! series. The audiophile SACDs include tone poems and suites by Richard Strauss, Beethoven’s Symphonies No. 3, 5, 7 and 9, Brahms Symphony No. 4, Bruckner’s Symphonies No. 4 and 9, Tchaikovsky’s Symphonies No. 4 and 6, and works by Jonathan Leshnoff, James MacMillan, and Steven Stucky, and have received many excellent reviews for Manfred Honeck’s interpretations as well as the sound engineering by partner Soundmirror. After several GRAMMY Award nominations, the recording of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 and Barber’s Adagio was awarded two Awards in January 2018: Best Orchestral Performance and Best Engineered Album Classical. The recordings of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 9 and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 and No. 9 also received multiple GRAMMY nominations. Brahms Symphony No. 4 and MacMillan Larghetto for Orchestra was released in October 2021, Beethoven Symphony No. 6 and Stucky’s Silent Spring in June 2022 and Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5 and Schulhoff’s Five Pieces in July 2023. The most recent recording, again praised by the specialist press, was published in June 2024: Bruckner’s 7th Symphony and Mason Bates’ Resurrexit.
The 2025–26 season marks a dynamic year of celebration and reflection as the PSO participates in America250, the national commemoration of the United States’ 250th anniversary. With 21 American compositions programmed across the season culminating in a two-week America250 Festival alongside world premieres and new commissions, the Pittsburgh Symphony continues to affirm its place as one of America’s most vital orchestras.
A proud leader in music education and community engagement, the PSO reaches tens of thousands of students annually through free Schooltime concerts, neighborhood performances, and creative partnerships across western Pennsylvania. Through its Learning & Engagement initiatives, which reached over 30,000 students in the 24/25 season, the orchestra seeks to bring great music into every life and foster the next generation of artists and audiences.
In 2021/22, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra celebrated the 50th anniversary of Heinz Hall as the home of the Orchestra. The acoustically outstanding performing arts center is in the heart of downtown Pittsburgh, and the cornerstone of the city’s Cultural District.
Not be altered without permission by PR² classic.
Click here for the webpages of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.
Manfred Honeck
Manfred Honeck has firmly established himself as one of the world’s leading conductors, renowned for his distinctive and revelatory interpretations that have garnered international acclaim. As Music Director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, where he has now started his 18th season, he continues to shape the orchestra’s artistic identity with a deep sense of purpose and passion. His tenure, extended through the 2027–2028 season, has seen the orchestra flourish both artistically and as a cultural ambassador for the city of Pittsburgh. Celebrated at home and abroad, guest appearances under his leadership include Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, as well as the major venues of Europe and leading festivals such as the BBC Proms, Salzburg Festival, Musikfest Berlin, Lucerne Festival, Rheingau Music Festival, and Grafenegg Festival. In summer 2024, he led the orchestra in a nine-city European Festivals Tour, beginning with their appearance as the only American orchestra at the prestigious Salzburg Festival and concluding at Vienna Konzerthaus.
Manfred Honeck’s successful tenure in Pittsburgh is extensively documented by a series of recordings on the Reference Recordings label, featuring works by Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Shostakovich, Strauss, Tchaikovsky, and others. They have received widespread critical acclaim and multiple GRAMMY nominations, including a win for »Best Orchestral Performance« in 2018. In August 2025, he and the orchestra released Requiem: Mozart’s Death in Words and Music, an original concept imagining a Funeral Mass for Mozart, combining the composer’s Requiem with Gregorian chant, poetry, and other Mozart choral music.
Born in Austria, Manfred Honeck completed his musical training at the University of Music in Vienna. His many years of experience as a member of the viola section in the Vienna Philharmonic and Vienna State Opera Orchestra have had a lasting influence on his work as a conductor, and his art of interpretation is rooted in a desire to venture deep beneath the surface of the music. He began his conducting career as an assistant to Claudio Abbado and as director of the Vienna Jeunesse Orchestra. Subsequently, he was engaged by the Zurich Opera House, where he was awarded the European Conducting Prize in 1993. He has since served as one of three principal conductors of the MDR Symphony Orchestra Leipzig, as Music Director of the Norwegian National Opera, Principal Guest Conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra and Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, and Chief Conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Stockholm. In 2023, he was appointed Honorary Conductor by the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, following decades of close collaboration.
Manfred Honeck also enjoys a distinguished profile as an opera conductor. In his four seasons as General Music Director of the Staatsoper Stuttgart, he conducted premieres of operas by Berlioz, Mozart, Poulenc, Strauss, Verdi, and Wagner. He has also appeared as guest at leading houses such as Semperoper Dresden, Komische Oper Berlin, Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels, Royal Opera of Copenhagen, and the Salzburg Festival. In 2020, Beethoven’s anniversary year, he conducted a new staging of Fidelio (1806 version) at the Theater an der Wien. In autumn 2022, he made his much-acclaimed debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, leading a revival of Mozart’s Idomeneo. Beyond the podium, Manfred Honeck has created a series of symphonic suites, including Janáček’s Jenůfa, Strauss’s Elektra, Dvořák’s Rusalka as well as Puccini’s Turandot which he regularly performs around the globe. The most recent arrangement, of Strauss’s Arabella, was premiered by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in 2025.
As a guest conductor, Manfred Honeck is a regular presence with all leading international orchestras, including Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Staatskapelle Dresden, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Accademia di Santa Cecilia Rome and the Vienna Philharmonic. In the United States, he has conducted all major orchestras from New York to San Francisco. He has also been Artistic Director of the International Concerts Wolfegg in Germany for over three decades.
In the 2025-2026 season, he will record Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 Resurrection, and Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8 with the Pittsburgh Symphony, in addition to leading a variety of American orchestral music as part of celebrations around America’s 250th anniversary. He will continue to have a strong presence in the USA, returning to the Chicago Symphony, New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony and Los Angeles Philharmonic. Honoring the composer’s 200th birthday anniversary, works by Johann Strauß are at the center of many of his concert programmes from Stockholm to Bamberg, including the jubilee concert at the Vienna Musikverein in October 2025, where he will be joined by world-famous violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter.
Manfred Honeck holds honorary doctorates from several universities in the United States and was awarded the honorary title of Professor by the Austrian Federal President. In 2018, the jury of the International Classical Music Awards declared him “Artist of the Year”.
Not be altered without permission by KünstlerSekretariat am Gasteig / PR² classic.