Manfred Honeck

Manfred Honeck, renowned for his distinctive interpretations, has served as music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra since the 2008–09 season. He and the orchestra are consistently recognized for their performances and are celebrated both in Pittsburgh and abroad. To great acclaim, they regularly perform in major music capitals and festivals, in appearances including the BBC Proms, Musikfest Berlin, Lucerne Festival, Rheingau Musik Festival, Beethovenfest Bonn, Grafenegg Festival, Carnegie Hall, and Vienna’s Musikverein. This successful collaboration has also been extensively documented on recordings. The SACDs released by Reference Recordings — most recently suites from Richard Strauss’s operas Elektra and Der Rosenkavalier — have received numerous rave reviews, as well as two Grammy Award nominations.

Born in Austria, Manfred Honeck received his musical training at the Academy of Music in Vienna. Many years of experience as a member of the Vienna Philharmonic and the Vienna Staatsoper Orchestra have given his conducting a distinctive stamp. He began his career as assistant to Claudio Abbado and was subsequently engaged by the Zurich Opera House, which awarded him the prestigious European Conductor’s Award. Following early posts as one of three main conductors of the MDR Symphony Orchestra in Leipzig and as principal guest conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Mr. Honeck was appointed music director of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Stockholm. For several years he also served as principal guest conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. From 2007 to 2011 he was music director of the Staatsoper Stuttgart. He has been artistic director of the International Concerts Wolfegg in Germany for more than 20 years.

Mr. Honeck has worked as a guest conductor with the world’s leading orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Dresden Staatskapelle, Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Accademia di Santa Cecilia Rome, and the Vienna Philharmonic. In the United States he has conducted the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, and Boston Symphony Orchestra. His operatic guest appearances have included Dresden Semperoper, Royal Opera of Copenhagen, and the Salzburg Festival.

Manfred Honeck has received honorary doctorates from several North American universities. Most recently, he was awarded the title of honorary professor by the Austrian Federal President.

Nikolaj Znaider

Nikolaj Znaider performs as both conductor and violin soloist with the world’s most distinguished orchestras. He has been principal guest conductor of the Mariinsky Orchestra Saint Petersburg since 2010, after serving as principal guest conductor of the Swedish Chamber Orchestra.

Following a triumphant return to the BBC Proms with the Dresden Staatskapelle and Christian Thielemann, Mr. Znaider embarks on a new project: recording Mozart’s complete violin concertos, conducted from the violin with the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO). He has a particularly strong relationship with the LSO, with which he conducts and performs as soloist every season. As both conductor and soloist, Mr. Znaider is interested in deepening his connections with the key orchestras with which he feels a special bond, working regularly with orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, Dresden Staatskapelle, Cleveland Orchestra, Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, and the Chicago, Detroit, Montreal, and National symphony orchestras.

Mr. Znaider’s extensive discography includes Nielsen’s Violin Concerto with Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic (available as part of The Nielsen Project on Dacapo Records), Elgar’s Violin Concerto with Colin Davis and the Dresden Staatskapelle, award-winning recordings of Brahms’s and Korngold’s Violin Concertos with Valery Gergiev and the Vienna Philharmonic, Beethoven’s and Mendelssohn’s Violin Concertos with Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2 and Glazunov’s Violin Concerto with Mariss Jansons and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto with Riccardo Chailly and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra on DVD. Mr. Znaider has also recorded Brahms’s complete works for violin and piano with Yefim Bronfman.

Nikolaj Znaider is passionate about supporting the next generation of musical talent and spent ten years as founder and artistic director of the annual Nordic Music Academy summer school. He plays the “Kreisler” Guarnerius “del Gesu” 1741 on extended loan to him by The Royal Danish Theater through the generosity of the VELUX Foundation and the Knud Højgaard Foundation. 

Learn more about Nikolaj Znaider