Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

Manfred Honeck is widely regarded as one of the world's leading conductors, celebrated for his distinctive and revelatory interpretations that have garnered international acclaim. As Music Director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, where he is now in his 19th season, he continues to shape the orchestra’s artistic identity with a deep sense of purpose and passion. His tenure, recently extended through the 2032–2033 season, has seen the orchestra flourish artistically while strengthening its role as a cultural ambassador for the city of Pittsburgh. Celebrated at home and abroad, the orchestra has appeared at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, as well as at major venues throughout Europe and prestigious festivals such as the BBC Proms, Salzburg Festival, Musikfest Berlin, Lucerne Festival, Rheingau Music Festival, and Grafenegg Festival.

Manfred Honeck's acclaimed Pittsburgh tenure is reflected in an extensive discography on the Reference Recordings label, featuring works by Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Shostakovich, Strauss, Tchaikovsky, and others. These recordings 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 reimagining a funeral mass for Mozart, combining the composer’s Requiem with Gregorian chant, poetry, and other choral works by Mozart. 

Born in Austria, Manfred Honeck completed his musical training at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. His years as a violist with the Vienna Philharmonic and Vienna State Opera Orchestra have had a lasting influence on his work as a conductor, and his approach to 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 a guest conductor at major institutions such as Semperoper Dresden, Komische Oper Berlin, the 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, based on Strauss's Arabella, received its premiere with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in 2025.

As a guest conductor, Manfred Honeck appears regularly with many of the world's leading orchestras, including the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra London, the Orchestre de Paris, and the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. In the United States, he has conducted many of the nation’s most distinguished ensembles. He has also been Artistic Director of the International Wolfegg Concerts in Germany for over three decades. 

In summer 2026, he returns to the Salzburg Festival to conduct Ariadne auf Naxos with the Vienna Philharmonic. He will also lead the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra on a European festival tour, with appearances in Salzburg, Lucerne, Amsterdam, Hamburg, and at the opening concert of the season at the Vienna Konzerthaus. In the 2026/27 season, he will commemorate the 200th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven’s death with special programs and a new commission from Jüri Reinvere, to be presented worldwide.

Manfred Honeck holds honorary doctorates from several universities in the United States and has been 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." In 2026, he received the Julio Kilenyi Medal from the American Bruckner Society, an honor bestowed on distinguished interpreters of Bruckner.

Anne Martindale Williams is principal cello of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and holds the Pittsburgh Symphony Association Chair. She has enjoyed a successful career as principal cellist of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra since 1979, having joined the orchestra in 1976. Throughout her tenure with the orchestra, she has often been featured as soloist both in Pittsburgh and on tour in New York at Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall. Williams was soloist with the Pittsburgh Symphony in the Pittsburgh premier of The Giving Tree conducted by the composer, Lorin Maazel. In 2015, she performed with renowned mezzo-soprano, Jamie Barton, Jake Heggie’s “The Work at Hand”, a work co-commissioned by the Pittsburgh Symphony and Carnegie Hall. She has also collaborated with guest artists such as Yehudi Menuhin, André Previn, the Emerson Quartet, Lynn Harrell, Joshua Bell, Gil Shaham and Pinchas Zukerman in numerous chamber music performances. She made her London debut performing Dvořák’s Cello Concerto with the Royal Philharmonic, Andre Previn conducting. Her solo in The Swan on the Pittsburgh Symphony’s recording of Carnival of the Animals by Saint-Saëns was described by Gramophone critic Edward Greenfield as “…the most memorable performance of all.”

Anne Williams divides her time between the orchestra, teaching at Carnegie Mellon University, and solo and chamber music performances. She has appeared in several nationally televised productions including “Concertos,” produced by the BBC and “Previn and the Pittsburgh,” produced by WQED. She has given master classes at many universities and festivals throughout the country, including the Curtis Institute of Music, Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Orchestra, the Joseph Gingold Festival in Miami, SUNY at Stony Brook, Manhattan School of Music, the New World Symphony, the National Orchestral Institute, Aspen, Credo at Oberlin College and the Masterworks Festival. She also has performed at many of America’s prestigious summer music festivals including Aspen, Marlboro, Caramoor, Skaneateles, Maui, Rockport Festivals in Massachusetts and Maine, Grand Teton, Strings Festival in Steamboat Springs, Orcas Island, and Mainly Mozart in San Diego. For many years she has enjoyed performing throughout the country with her Piano Trio, which includes her good friends Andrés Cárdenes and David Deveau.

Anne Williams has performed numerous times as soloist with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, performing Schumann’s Concerto in A minor, Tippett’s Triple Concerto, Previn’s Reflections, Elgar’s Cello Concerto, Haydn’s Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Cello, Oboe, Bassoon and Orchestra, Walton’s Cello Concerto, Strauss’s Don Quixote, Bloch’s Schelomo, Dvořák’s Cello Concerto, Dutilleux’s Tout un monde lointain, as well as Saint-Saëns’ Concerto No. 1 and Brahms’ Double Concerto. In recent seasons, she was featured in Haydn’s Concerto in C and Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations. 

A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, Williams studied with Orlando Cole. Her Tecchler cello was made in Rome in 1701. She resides with her family in the South Hills of Pittsburgh. 

First Concertmaster, Berliner Philharmoniker

Considering it his life-long pursuit, Noah Bendix-Balgley has a personal sound that connects with his audience in a meaningful way. Whether he’s leading the Berlin Philharmonic as First Concertmaster, performing chamber music or in front of the orchestra as soloist, Noah’s gift of communication through music has reached listeners all around the world.

As a soloist, Noah regularly appears with leading international orchestras and in recital at the world’s finest halls. Upcoming highlights this season include debuts with the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, Buffalo Philharmonic, NHK Symphony Orchestra and a play-direct program with the Kammerakademie Potsdam.  Recent highlights include his concerto debut with the Berlin Philharmonic (play-direct), concerto appearances with the Verbier Festival Orchestra at Schloss Elmau, debuts with the Shanghai and Guangzhou Symphony Orchestras, and extensive recital tours throughout Asia and Europe, including performances at the Berlin Philharmonie, Beethovenhaus Bonn, National Concert Hall Wroclaw and National Concert Hall in Taipei.

In 2016 Noah composed and premiered his own klezmer violin concerto Fidl-Fantazye with the Pittsburgh Symphony conducted by Manfred Honeck, a piece which he also performed with the China Philharmonic. Further performance highlights include concerts with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Orchestre National de Belgique, the Utah Symphony, the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, the Auckland Philharmonia, the Nagoya Philharmonic, a tour with Apollo’s Fire Orchestra performing on period instruments and performing the Brahms Double Concerto with the Aspen Music Festival Orchestra and Alisa Weilerstein.

A passionate chamber musician, Noah performs in several fixed ensembles including a trio with pianist Robert Levin and cellist Peter Wiley and the multi-genre septet Philharmonix featuring members of both the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic orchestras, which just released their 2nd album on Deutsche Grammophon. Recent and upcoming chamber highlights include performances at the Seattle Music Festival, Bergen International Festival, the Sarasota Festival, ChamberFest Cleveland, Zermatt Festival, Le Pont Festival in Japan and worldwide touring with Philharmonix including a multi-year residency at Vienna’s Konzerthaus.

Noah is also a renowned performer of traditional klezmer music, a musical style which has been part of his life since an early age. He has performed with world-renowned klezmer groups such as Brave Old World and has taught at klezmer workshops throughout Europe and the United States. He performs on a Cremonese violin made in 1732 by Carlo Bergonzi.