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.

Gautier Capuçon is a true 21st century ambassador for the cello. Performing internationally with many of the world’s foremost conductors and instrumentalists, he is also deeply committed to education and support for young musicians from every background. In summer 2020, Capuçon brought music directly into the lives of families across the length and breadth of France during his musical odyssey ‘Un été en France’. The sixth edition of the project, featuring young musicians and dancers, takes place in July 2025. In January 2022, Gautier Capuçon launched Fondation Gautier Capuçon to support young and talented musicians at the beginning of their careers. Capuçon is also a passionate ambassador for the Orchestre à l'École Association which brings classical music to more than 42,000 school children across France.

A multiple award winner, Capuçon is acclaimed for his expressive musicianship, exuberant virtuosity, and for the deep sonority of his 1701 Matteo Goffriller cello “L’Ambassadeur”. He performs with world leading orchestras each season, working with conductors such as Semyon Bychkov, Lionel Bringuier, Riccardo Chailly, Gustavo Dudamel, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, Andrès Orozco-Estrada, Pablo Heras-Casado, Paavo Järvi, Christian Măcelaru, Klaus Mäkelä, Ludovic Morlot, Andris Nelsons, Lahav Shani, Christian Thielemann, and Yu Long. Collaborations with contemporary composers include Lera Auerbach, Karol Beffa, Esteban Benzecry, Nicola Campogrande, Qigang Chen, Guillaume Connesson, Bryce Dessner, Ludovico Einaudi, Richard Dubugnon, Henry Dutilleux, Danny Elfman, Thierry Escaich, Philippe Manoury, Bruno Mantovani, Krzysztof Penderecki, Max Richter, Wolfgang Rihm and Jörg Widmann.

Highlights of the 2024/25 season include return visits as soloist to DSO Berlin/Ticciati, Gewandhaus Orchester Leipzig/Nelsons, HR Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt/Altinoglu, Oslo Philharmonic/Mäkelä, Orchestre de Paris/Popelka, and Philadelphia Orchestra/Deneve, and Wiener Philharmoniker/Thielemann, amongst others. He is soloist on tour throughout Europe with Orchestra della Scala/Chailly; and he tours with Evgeny Kissin, Gidon Kremer and Maxim Rysanov in chamber music concerts celebrating Shostakovich’s 50th Anniversary year in 2025. In October 2024, he joins Jean-Yves Thibaudet for a duo-recital tour in Asia, with performances in Seoul, and Hong Kong, followed by two performances in Guangzhou and Beijing Music Festival of Richard Dubugnon’s double concerto Eros Athanatos.

Other regular chamber music partners include Lisa Batiashvili, Frank Braley, Jérôme Ducros, Leonidas Kavakos, Nikolai Lugansky, Gabriela Montero, as well as Martha Argerich, Daniel Barenboim, Renaud Capuçon, Andreas Ottensamer, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Yuja Wang, Nikolaij Znaider, the Labèque sisters and the Ébène, Hagen and Modigliani quartets. Capuçon regularly plays at acclaimed festivals worldwide. In 2025, following a successful first tour in the 2022/23 season, Capuçon’s cello ensemble created with his former students – Capucelli – tours Europe and Taiwan.

Recording exclusively for Erato (Warner Classics), Capuçon has won multiple awards and holds an extensive discography featuring major concerto and chamber music literature. His album Destination Paris, released in November 2023 in the lead-up to the monumental Paris Olympics in summer 2024, celebrates Parisian music from classical repertoire to film scores as a testament to his home city. 2020’s Warner Classics album Emotions features music from composers such as Debussy, Schubert and Elgar while Sensations (released in Autumn 2022) explores short, popular pieces from a range of different genres. Both Emotions and Sensations have garnered the prestigious Disque D’Or selling more than 50,000 copies respectively in France. Highlights of his back catalogue include the complete Beethoven Sonatas with Frank Braley; an album of Schumann works recorded live with Martha Argerich, Renaud Capuçon and Chamber Orchestra of Europe/ Bernard Haitink; Chopin and Franck sonatas with Yuja Wang; and a solo album featuring Bach, Dutilleux and Kodaly to mark his 40th birthday.

Capuçon has also been featured on DVD in live performances with Wiener Philharmoniker/Andris Nelsons (Saint-Saëns’ Cello Concerto No.1) Berliner Philharmoniker/Gustavo Dudamel (Haydn’s Cello Concerto No.1) and with Lisa Batiashvili, Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden and Christian Thielemann (Brahms’ Concerto for Violin and Cello).

Born in Chambéry, Capuçon began playing the cello at the age of five. He studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur in Paris with Philippe Muller and Annie Cochet-Zakine, and later with Heinrich Schiff in Vienna. Now a household name in his native France, Capuçon appears on screen and online in shows such as Prodiges, Now Hear This, Symphony Pour La Vie, and The Artist Academy, and is a guest presenter on Radio Classique in the show Les Carnets de Gautier Capuçon since the 2019/20 season.