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.

Beatrice Rana has been shaking the international classical music world, arousing admiration and interest from concert presenters, conductors, critics and audiences internationally.

Beatrice performs at the world’s most esteemed concert halls and festivals including the Berlin Philharmonie, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, New York’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, Barbican Centre, Wigmore Hall, Royal Albert Hall and Royal Festival Hall in London, Philharmonie de Paris, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Vienna’s Konzerthaus and Musikverein, KKL Lucerne, Cologne Philharmonie, Munich’s Gasteig, Prinzregententheater and Herkulessaal, Frankfurt’s Alte Oper, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie and Laeiszhalle, Liederhalle Stuttgart, Tonhalle Zurich, Philharmonie de Luxembourg, Milan’s Società dei Concerti, BBC Proms, Ferrara Musica, Verbier Festival, Rheingau Festival, Bad Kissinger Sommer, Klavier Festival Ruhr, Lugano’s LAC, Stresa Festival, La Roque d’Anthéron Festival, Rencontres Musicales d’Evian, Bucarest Enescu Festival, Mostly Mozart, Boston’s Symphony Hall and  Celebrity Series, Gilmore Keyboard Festival, Los Angeles’ Walt Disney Hall and Hollywood Bowl, Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center.

She collaborates with conductors such as Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Antonio Pappano, Manfred Honeck, Klaus Mäkelä, Gianandrea Noseda, Jaap van Zweden, Lahav Shani, Jakub Hrusa, Gustavo Gimeno, Fabio Luisi, Riccardo Chailly, Paavo Järvi, Valery Gergiev, Yuri Temirkanov, Vladimir Jurowski, Dima Slobodeniouk, Karina Canellakis, James Gaffigan, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, Susanna Mälkki and Zubin Mehta. 

Betarice is the guest of such orchestras as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Bayerische Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester, Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Orchestre de Paris, Wiener Symphoniker, New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, London Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra dell' Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Orchestra Sinfonica della RAI, Filarmonica della Scala, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, NHK Symphony, Seoul Philharmonic, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Tonkünstler Orchester, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, or the St Petersburg Philharmonic. 

In the 2023/24 season, Beatrice will be touring in Europe with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Antonio Pappano, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, She will debut with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Cleveland Orchestra with Lahav Shani and will return to the New York Philharmonic with Manfred Honeck.

Beatrice Rana records exclusively for Warner Classics. In 2015, her first album featuring Prokofiev Piano Concerto No.2 and Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No.1 with Antonio Pappano and the Accademia Nazionale Santa Cecilia di Roma received international acclaim including the prestigious Gramophone Magazine’s Editor’s Choice and BBC Music Magazine’s Newcomer of the Year  Award. The year 2017 will remain a milestone in her career with the release of Bach’s Goldberg Variations. The recording was praised by reviewers worldwide and was crowned by two major awards: “Young Artist of the Year” at the Gramophone Awards and “Discovery of the year” at the Edison Awards. In June 2018, she was chosen as Female Artist of the Year at the Classic BRIT Awards at the Royal Albert Hall for her recording of the Bach. Beatrice also recorded Bernstein Symphony No.2 ‘Age of Anxiety’ as part of Antonio Pappano’s recording of the composer’s complete symphonies, which also garnered her high critical acclaim. Her latest solo album was released in October 2019, featuringworks by Stravinsky and Ravel and was awarded several top prizes incuding Diapason d’Or de l’Année and Choc de l’Année Classica in France. A Chopin album was released in September 2021 and also received many awards. In 2023 Beatrice presented her 5th album featuring Clara and Robert Schumann’s concertos with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

In 2017, Beatrice started her own chamber music festival « Classiche Forme » in her native town of Lecce, Puglia. The festival has become one of Italy’s major summer events. She also became artistic director of the Orchestra Filarmonica di Benevento in 2020.

In June 2013, Beatrice Rana won Silver (2nd Prize) and the Audience Award at the prestigious Van Cliburn competition. She had attracted international attention at 18, winning 1st Prize and all special prizes at the Montreal International Competition in 2011. A recipient of an impressive number of first prizes in national and international piano competitions, such as “Muzio Clementi” Competition, “International Piano Competition of the Republic of San Marino” and “Bang&Olufsen PianoRAMA Competition”.  Born to a family of musicians in 1993, Beatrice Rana made her debuts as a soloist with orchestra at the age of 9, performing Bach Concerto in F minor. Beatrice began her musical studies at four and achieved her Piano Degree under the guidance of Benedetto Lupo at the Nino Rota Conservatory of Music in Monopoli, where she also studied composition with Marco della Sciucca. She then studied with Arie Vardi in Hannover and again with Benedetto Lupo at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia. She is based in Rome.

Lera Auerbach’s journey into the world of art began as a poet, with several published works before she turned 18. Born in 1973 in Chelyabinsk, in the Ural Mountains, she was a virtuoso pianist from early childhood and composed her first opera at the age of twelve. In 1991, during a concert tour in the United States, she made the spontaneous decision at just 17 years old to remain in New York—without a safety net and without speaking English—while the Soviet Union was on the brink of collapse. She seized her freedom and started a new life in the U.S., where she was later granted American citizenship in recognition of her extraordinary talent. In 2021, the Austrian government also awarded her citizenship for her significant contributions to music and the arts, underscoring her international influence. She studied piano and composition at the Juilliard School and comparative literature at Columbia University. In 2002, she completed her concert diploma at the Hochschule für Musik in Hanover. That same year, she debuted at Carnegie Hall with her Suite for Violin, Piano, and Orchestra, performed by Gidon Kremer and the Kremerata Baltica. Her extensive catalog now encompasses nearly every musical genre, from chamber music and orchestral works to opera and ballet, performed worldwide by leading soloists, orchestras, and theaters.

Today, conducting is at the center of her artistic focus. It defines her current artistic expression: “Standing on the podium, creating vast musical landscapes, sharing a vision of expression with the orchestra, drawing from my experience in various art forms, and integrating these currents into the ocean of the orchestra and the stage—that is my greatest joy.” This role enriches her artistic voice and expands her legacy as she brings her unique vision to symphonic stages worldwide.

As a poet of both words and music, her literary work includes poetry and prose collections, novellas, and numerous contributions to newspapers and magazines. Auerbach was named Poet of the Year by the International Pushkin Society, and her first English-language book, Excess of Being, explores the art of aphorisms. In 2022, her children’s book A is for Oboe (Random House) won the AudioFile Best Audiobook Award, and she received the Robert Creeley Memorial Award, leading to the publication of her poetry manuscript Forever Music. She remains active as a visual artist, with her works being collected and exhibited. A career that would suffice for multiple lifetimes—yet she continues her journey: “There is no reason to keep something locked in its cage and not connect it,” says Lera Auerbach. “For me, art must feel larger than life. Whether it is music, visual art, or literature, art is what remains of our time.”