Manfred Honeck Leads Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in THE DAMNATION OF FAUST

Manfred Honeck, Music Director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and one of the foremost conductors of our time, will lead the orchestra in two concert performances of Berlioz's rarely-performed The Damnation of Faust on Friday, March 8 and Sunday, March 10, 2019 at Heinz Hall in Pittsburgh. The performances will feature an all-star international cast alongside The Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh, the official chorus of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and the Pittsburgh Youth Chorus. On Sunday, May 19, 2019 at 3:00 PM, Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra will return to New York to perform Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5, "Emperor" with Till Fellner and Mahler's Symphony No. 5 at David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center.

Berlioz's The Damnation of Faust is a colossal dramatic and symphonic work based on Goethe's Faust. Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra's concert performances of The Damnation of Faust will boast an international quartet of today's leading opera singers headed by American tenor Charles Castronovo as Faust, French mezzo-soprano Clémentine Margaine as Marguerite, and Italian bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni as Mephistopheles. The emerging American baritone Alexander Birch Elliott, who recently made his celebrated, last-minute Metropolitan Opera debut in Bizet's Les pêcheurs des Perles, rounds out the cast as Brander. For these performances, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra will join forces with the award-winning Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh, the orchestra's choral partner for over nine decades, and the Pittsburgh Youth Chorus, also a long-time partner. Honeck will conduct The Damnation of Faust with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra at Heinz Hall, on Friday, March 8 at 8:00 PM and Sunday, March 10 at 2:30 PM.

Honeck continues the 2018/2019 season with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra with several concert programs at Heinz Hall, the orchestra's home in downtown Pittsburgh. On March 22, 23, and 24, Honeck will conduct Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto with Julian Rachlin and Grieg's Peer Gynt alongside the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra premiere of Rachmaninoff's Caprice bohémien. Matthias Goerne and Eric Cutler join Honeck and the orchestra for Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde with Vilde Frang performing Beethoven's Violin Concerto on May 10 and 12.

On Sunday, May 19, 2019 at 3:00 PM, Honeck will bring the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra back to New York City to close Lincoln Center's 2018/2019 Great Performers Series at David Geffen Hall. Honeck will lead the orchestra in a performance of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5, "Emperor" with soloist Till Fellner and Mahler's Symphony No. 5. This concert will mark the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra's first appearance in New York City since 2014.

The 2018/2019 season concludes with three additional programs. Over a recording weekend, the GRAMMY Award-winning music director will lead four consecutive performances of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 paired with the world premiere of Jonathan Leshnoff's Double Concerto for Clarinet and Bassoon, commissioned by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and featuring Principal Clarinet Michael Rusinek and Principal Bassoon Nancy Goeres, June 6 through 9, 2019. The final concert weekend of the season will feature Honeck conducting Strauss's "Alpine" Symphony and Igor Levit performing Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major on June 14 and 16, 2019, and leading the symphony in a one-night-only concert with Joshua Bell on June 15, 2019.

As a guest conductor, Manfred Honeck returns to the San Francisco Symphony for the second time this season on February 22, 23, and 24, 2019, conducting Schumann's Piano Concerto in A Minor with Lars Vogt, as well as works by Johann Strauss Jr., Josef Strauss, and Von Suppé. Honeck also returns for the second time this season to the New York Philharmonic, leading an all-Mozart program, featuring the Requiem with the Westminster Symphonic Choir directed by Joe Miller, and the Piano Concerto No. 27 with Richard Goode, March 13, 15, 16, and 19, 2019 at David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center.

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