Festival de Grafenegg: Orquesta Sinfónica de Pittsburgh, Manfred Honeck

Austrian conductor Manfred Honeck was violinist with the Vienna Philharmonic for 10 years, and embarked on his conducting career as assistant to Claudio Abbado at the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra. Subsequently, he was engaged by the Zurich Opera House, served as Music Director at the Norwegian National Opera in Oslo, was Music Director of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and has since 2008 been Principal Guest Conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. A highly sought‐after conductor, other engagements have led Honeck to guest conduct numerous preeminent orchestras as well as opera houses.

Established in 1896, the brilliant American orchestra prides itself on a rich history of the world’s finest conductors and musicians: PSO has been led by internationally recognized conductors such as Lorin Maazel, André Previn, and Mariss Jansons, who have been maintaining and enhancing PSO’s high standard of excellence. Since autumn 2008, the Orchestra’s Music Director and Principal Conductor has been Manfred Honeck, with Leonard Slatkin as its Principal Guest Conductor. For over a hundred years, PSO has been an essential part of Pittsburgh’s cultural landscape and one of the finest representatives of American orchestral excellence. With a long and distinguished history of touring, both domestically and overseas, the PSO has earned critical acclaim for each tour. The orchestra has also achieved an illustrious reputation for its myriad recordings. Its disc featuring works by Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky, with soloist Yo‐Yo Ma and under the baton of Lorin Maazel, won a Grammy Award.