Pittsburgh Symphony Renews Manfred Honeck's Contract Through 32/33

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra has extended Music Director Manfred Honeck's contract through the 2032/2033 season, amounting to a 25-year partnership that will make him the longest-serving Music Director in the Orchestra's 131-year history. 

Throughout his artistic leadership since 2008, Manfred Honeck has elevated the international status of the Pittsburgh Symphony through a renewed interest in recordings and international touring, as well as lauded performances renowned for their distinctive and revelatory interpretations. He has shaped the orchestra's artistic identity with a deep sense of purpose and passion, and under his leadership, the orchestra continues to flourish both artistically and as a cultural ambassador for the city of Pittsburgh.

With Honeck, the Orchestra launched its critically acclaimed Pittsburgh Live! recording series with Reference Recordings, earning twelve GRAMMY Award nominations and three wins, including Best Orchestral Performance for the Shostakovich Symphony No. 5/Barber Adagio for Strings album. Honeck has also led the PSO on regular European tours during his tenure, including four appearances at the prestigious Salzburg Festival as the only American orchestra—again a stop in August 2026 on their next European tour—as well as visits to the Lucerne Festival and season-opening performances at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, and Vienna's Konzerthaus. Most recently, the orchestra received rave reviews upon its return to Carnegie Hall in December 2025.

Honeck's PSO legacy also includes a distinctive body of creative projects, from new commissions and premieres by composers including Carlos Simon, Mason Bates, Lera Auerbach, James MacMillan, Samy Moussa, and Jessie Montgomery, to his own symphonic suites and semi-staged choral works. His tenure has brought the PSO into collaboration with leading artists across disciplines, including Anne-Sophie Mutter, Yo-Yo Ma, Lang Lang, John Williams, and F. Murray Abraham while also fostering a new generation of performers.

For his work in championing the music of Austrian composer Anton Bruckner, he was awarded the Medal of Honor from the Bruckner Society of America in February 2026.

Beyond the concert hall, Honeck has built deep connections throughout the region's educational, cultural, and faith communities. His contributions have been recognized with honorary degrees from Carnegie Mellon University, Duquesne University, Catholic University of America, and Saint Vincent College, where the orchestra regularly performs.

In 2018, he led the orchestra and city in the Concert for Peace and Unity in honor of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting victims, and in 2013 he led The Singing City, a landmark concert that brought thousands of singers from the region together with the Symphony. Honeck has regularly partnered with Pittsburgh arts organizations, performing semi-staged productions of Handel's Messiah, Bach's St. John Passion, and Haydn's Creation with the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh, and caps his 2025/2026 season with Appalachian Spring alongside Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre.