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.

“Peter Sellars brings a message of love to Mozart’s Idomeneo at Salzburg Festival. There’s plenty to admire at the Felsenreitschule, but the evening belongs to soprano Ying Fang….This diminutive singer has a voice that can stop time, pure and rich and open and consummately expressive.” - Financial Times

Ms. Fang’s operatic season in 2019-20 is comprised of a house debut with Lyric Opera of Chicago as Zerlina in Mozart’s Don Giovanni led by James Gaffigan; a return to the Metropolitan Opera for a role debut as Sophie in Sir Richard Eyre’s production of Massenet’s Werther under the baton of Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Pamina in Julie Taymor’s magical production of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte conducted by Lothar Koenigs, a role she will reprise for a house debut at Houston Grand Opera in a breathtaking production by Barrie Kosky and Suzanne Andrad with Jane Glover conducting; and finally Susanna in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro at Los Angeles Opera directed by celebrated filmmaker James Gray and conducted by Music Director James Conlon which marks a third house debut for the season. Ms. Fang will sing concerts of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 Resurrection led by Gianandrea Noseda at the Tsinandali Festival in Georgia, as well as song recitals for Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Celebrity Series of Boston, and Parlance Chamber Concerts. The summer will mark her third return to the Verbier Festival as she performs a concert version of Don Giovanni under Gábor Takács-Nagy as well as a performance of Mozart’s Requiem conducted by Sir András Schiff.

In the 2018-19 season, Mozart was the foundation for two auspicious debuts for Ms. Fang. Her debut at the Salzburger Festspiele in a new production of Idomeneo reunited her with director Peter Sellars. She also returned to the Metropolitan Opera for a role debut as Servilia in the Jean-Pierre Ponnelle production La Clemenza di Tito. Another season highlight included Ms. Fang rejoining the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Walt Disney Hall, in collaboration with The Old Globe Theatre of San Diego, as Juno for performances of the incidental music to Shakespeare's The Tempest by Sibelius conducted by Susanna Mälkki. She made a return to the New York Philharmonic for performances of the Brahms Requiem under Jaap van Zweden. Ms. Fang debuted with several orchestras last season including the Cleveland Orchestra under the baton of Franz Welser-Möst as Echo in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos; the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Andris Nelsons and the Hong Kong Philharmonic conducted by Jaap van Zweden for Mahler’s Symphony No. 2; the San Francisco Symphony and Houston Symphony with Jane Glover conducting Handel’s Messiah; the Malaysian Philharmonic under Roberto Abbado and North Carolina Symphony under Carlos Miguel Prieto for Orff’s Carmina Burana; and a Carnegie Hall concert with Orchestra of St. Luke’s under Bernard Labadie for Mozart’s "Venga la morte....Non temer, amato bene.”

The 2017-2018 season saw Ms. Fang’s house debut at Opernhaus Zürich as Pamina in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. She returned to the Metropolitan Opera to sing Noémie in a new production of Massenet’s Cendrillon directed by Laurent Pelly that was broadcast worldwide via Live in HD. Ms. Fang portrayed Morgana in Handel’s Alcina with Washington National Opera. She also made a house and role debut at Vancouver Opera as Adina in Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore. Concert appearances included Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel and directed by Peter Sellars; a recital with pianist Ken Noda at Carnegie Hall. Ms. Fang returned to the Verbier Festival for Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 conducted by Christoph Eschenbach; performances of the Fauré Requiem under Mark Minkowski; and a solo recital. She also appeared in concert with the Verbier Chamber Ensemble at Schloss Elmau.

Ms. Fang’s previous seasons have included performances conductors James Levine, Sir Andrew Davis, Carlo Rizzi, Alan Gilbert, William Christie, Emmanuelle Haïm, Jesús López Cobos, Bernard Labadie, Nathalie Stutzmann, and Manfred Honeck. She has sung at Opéra de Lille, Opera Philadelphia, Wolf Trap Opera Company, Aspen Opera Theater Center, and The Juilliard School in such varied operas as L’Italiana in Algeri (Elvira), Jenůfa (Jano), Le Nozze di Figaro (Susanna), Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno (Bellezza), Tannhäuser (Shepherd), Hänsel und Gretel (Dew Fairy), Iphigénie en Aulide, Falstaff (Nannetta), Giulio Cesare (Cleopatra), Il Viaggio A Reims (Contessa di Folleville), Zaïde (title role), The Nose (Madame Podtochina’s Daughter), Don Giovanni (Zerlina), La Cambiale di Matrimonio (Fanny), Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Konstanze), and Curlew River (Spirit of the Boy). Concert engagements have included appearances with the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, New World Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, and Music of the Baroque Orchestra in Mahler’s Symphony Nos.2 and 4, Handel’s Messiah, Telemann’s Der Tag des Gerichts, Handel’s Silete Venti, Bernstein’s West Side Story, and more. Ms. Fang has given performances at Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, and Alice Tully Hall, as well as with the Verbier Festival, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, and Ravinia Festival.

A native of Ningbo, China, Ms. Fang is the recipient of the Martin E. Segal Award, the Hildegard Behrens Foundation Award, the Rose Bampton Award of The Sullivan Foundation, The Opera Index Award, and First Prize of the Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition. In 2009, she become one of the youngest singers to win one of China’s most prestigious awards – the China Golden Bell Award for Music. She has been hailed as “the most gifted Chinese soprano of her generation” by Ningbo Daily.

Ms. Fang holds a Master’s degree and an Artist Diploma in Opera Study from The Juilliard School and a Bachelor’s degree from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. She is a former member of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program.

Audiences and critics alike have praised The Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh’s programming, saying, “EXCEPTIONAL and MEMORABLE… I’m still talking about it,” “One of the finest music events I have ever attended,” and “the Mendelssohn never ceases to amaze me… This city should be proud of its choir” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). 

Critically acclaimed as one of the finest choruses in the country, MCP is the “voice of the greater Pittsburgh region” — whether premiering a choral work composed by Stewart Copeland of The Police at a rock venue, or performing Mozart with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (PSO) at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Unlike other professional arts organizations, MCP is proudly comprised of mostly amateur singers with professional-caliber talent, whose day jobs vary from postal clerk to physician to casino card dealer. MCP singers give generously of their talent, passion, and commitment to share the magic of live music with the widest possible audience, within Heinz Hall and throughout the community. 

For more than a century, MCP has proudly partnered with the PSO as its “chorus of choice,” bringing the joys of symphonic choral music to tens of thousands of people each year. MCP has performed under the batons of world-renowned conductors, including Lorin Maazel, Mariss Jansons, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Michael Tilson Thomas, Claudio Abbado, Mstislav Rostropovich, Leonard Slatkin, Charles Dutoit, André Previn, Sir Neville Marriner, Yan Pascal Tortelier, Helmuth Rilling, Ingo Metzmacher, Richard Hickox, Zdenek Mácal, and Manfred Honeck.

MCP embraces its long legacy of performances, recordings, and commissions that reimagine choral music for today’s audiences and bring bold, unique programming to the Pittsburgh region, such as the recent world premieres of Satan’s Fall by the Police’s Stewart Copeland and The Times They Are A-Changin’ by composer and conductor Steve Hackman. Under the leadership of its new Robert Page Music Director Daniel Singer, MCP looks forward to continuing its tradition of excellence while seeking innovative ways to encourage broader community participation in MCP as singers and as members of the audience. 

MCP fosters the next generation of choral singers and audience members through its educational program, the Junior Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh (JMCP). Founded in 1986, JMCP is the region’s premier high school choral training and performance program. Annually, JMCP attracts singers from more than a dozen school districts, providing youth with a challenging musical environment in which to develop their skills and encouraging them to be lifelong participants in the arts.

Mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey appears with the world’s most prestigious opera houses and orchestras. Highlights of 2024-2025 include a return to Teatro alla Scala in Der Rosenkavalier under the baton of Kirill Petrenko, and the world premiere of Francesco Filidei’s Il nome della rosa. She returns to the Wiener Staatsoper for Ariadne auf Naxos and Werther, followed by the world premiere of the cantata Lee Miller in Hitler’s Bathtub. Additional engagements include Hänsel and Gretel at the Royal Opera House, a concert tour Amore e follia with tenor Rolando Villazón, orchestral and recital appearances.

Career highlights include a Kurt Weill double bill of Mahagonny Songspiel and Die sieben Todsünden at Teatro alla Scala, and multiple productions at the Wiener Staatsoper, where she premiered the title role in Olga Neuwirth’s Orlando and completed the company’s Monteverdi opera triptych. Additional premiers include the lead role in the English National Opera premiere of Poul Ruders’s The Handmaid’s Tale, and the title role of Miranda in the Katie Mitchell production at Théâtre National de l'Opéra-Comique in Paris. At the Metropolitan Opera, she has sung over 100 performances in over a dozen roles, including Cherubino, Hänsel, Annio, Zerlina, Idamante, Nicklausse and Nerone.

Kate’s first solo album, Thousands of Miles, with pianist Baptiste Trotignon, includes works by Weill, Korngold and Zemlinsky. Her second album, Arianna, features the Arcangelo orchestra conducted by Jonathan Cohen. Kate’s most recent album, Tiranno, features world premiére recordings of cantatas by Scarlatti and Bartolomeo Monari. Kate records exclusively with
Outhere Music / Alpha.