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.

Matthias Goerne is one of the most versatile and internationally sought-after vocalists and a frequent guest at renowned festivals and concert halls. He has collaborated with the world's leading orchestras, conductors and pianists. Born in Weimar, he studied with Hans-Joachim Beyer in Leipzig, and later with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. Matthias Goerne has appeared on the world's principal opera stages including the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Teatro Real in Madrid, Paris National Opera, and the Vienna State Opera. His roles range from Wolfram, Amfortas, Wotan, Orest, and Jochanaan to the title roles in Béla Bartók's Duke Bluebeard's Castle and Alban Berg's Wozzeck.

Goerne's artistry has been documented on numerous recordings, many of which have received prestigious awards, including four Grammy nominations, an ICMA Award, a Gramophone Award, the BBC Music Magazine Vocal Award 2017, and a Diapason d'or arte. After his legendary recordings with Vladimir Ashkenazy and Alfred Brendel for Universal Music, he recorded a series of selected Schubert songs on 12 CDs for harmonia mundi (The Goerne/Schubert Edition) with eminent pianists. His latest recordings of Brahms songs with Christoph Eschenbach, of Schumann songs with Markus Hinterhäuser, of Mahler songs with the BBC Symphony, and of Wagner arias with the Swedish Radio Symphony have received rave reviews.

In addition to his residency with the New York Philharmonic further highlights of the 2018/19 season include concerts with other top orchestras in the U.S. (Pittsburgh, Houston, Los Angeles), Europe and Japan. Furthermore, Mr. Goerne appears as Kurwenal (Tristan) at the Paris National Opera. Song recitals with Daniil Trifonov, Leif Ove Andsnes and Sir Antonio Pappano will lead him to the Philharmonie in Berlin, Philharmonie de Paris, Wigmore Hall in London, Palau de la Música in Barcelona and other major European venues. Last but not least Goerne will be guest at the 2019 summer festivals in Ravinia, Salzburg and Verbier.

F. MURRAY ABRAHAM has appeared in more than 80 films including AMADEUS, for which he received the Academy Award® for 'Best Actor,' as well as Golden Globe® and L.A. Film Critics Awards. Abraham’s other films include THE NAME OF THE ROSE, FINDING FORRESTER, SCARFACE, THE RITZ, STAR TREK: INSURRECTION, THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL, INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS, LADY AND THE TRAMP, and many more. Mr. Abraham recently starred in the second season of HBO’s THE WHITE LOTUS, for which he received a Golden Globe® nomination. Previously he was a series regular on HOMELAND, for which he received 2 Emmy nominations, Apple TV+’s MYTHIC QUEST, Guillermo del Toro’s Netflix anthology series, CABINET OF CURIOSITIES, the HBO limited series, THE WHITE HOUSE PLUMBERS, and had memorable appearances on CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM, THE GOOD WIFE, THE GOOD FIGHT, and more. 

A veteran of the stage, F. Murray Abraham has appeared in more than 90 plays, among them Chekhov's “Uncle Vanya” (Obie Award), “Trumbo”, “Standup Shakespeare”, the Italian tour of “Notturno Pirandelliano”, Susan Stroman's “A Christmas Carol”, the musical “Triumph Of Love”, “A Month In The Country”, the title roles in “Cyrano de Bergerac”, “King Lear”, “Macbeth”, “Richard III”, “The Jew of Malta”, “The Seagull”, “Oedipus Rex”, “Creon”, “Angels In America” (Broadway), and Terrence McNally's “It's Only A Play” (Drama Desk Award nomination). Mr. Abraham’s honors include The Moscow Art Theatre Stanislavski Award, The Sir John Gielgud Award for Excellence in Shakespeare, Obie Award for Lifetime Achievement, and a member of The New York Theater Hall of Fame.

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.