Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Music Director Will Guest Conduct New York Philharmonic, 3/27-29

On March 27-29 at Avery Fisher Hall in New York City, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Music Director Manfred Honeck will lead the New York Philharmonic in the cathedral of sound that is Anton Bruckner's awe-inspiring Ninth Symphony.

The program includes Claude Vivier's "Orion," a work that evokes the sounds of the composer's journey through the Middle East and Asia, and Bruckner's Symphony No. 9, the composer's final symphonic masterpiece.

Honeck replaces Gustavo Dudamel, music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, who has withdrawn due to severe flu. Honeck, who led the New York Philharmonic twice prior to this appearance, made his conducting debut with the orchestra in the 2012-2013 season. He last conducted the New York Philharmonic in a one-night-only program featuring superstar violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter in December 2013.

Honeck will return to New York to lead the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra at the Spring for Music Festival on May 10 at Carnegie Hall.

More information about, or tickets for, this concert can be found at www.nyphil.org. Honeck's appearance is made possible through the Daisy and Paul Soros Endowment Fund.

Manfred Honeck was appointed the ninth music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in January 2007, and began his tenure at the start of the 2008-2009 season. After a first extension in 2009, his contract was extended for the second time in February 2012, now through the 2019-2020 season. Honeck was born in Austria and studied music at the Academy of Music in Vienna. An accomplished violinist and violist, he spent more than 10 years as a member of the Vienna Philharmonic and the Vienna State Opera Orchestra. He began his career as conductor of Vienna's Jeunesse Orchestra, which he co-founded, and as assistant to Claudio Abbado at the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra in Vienna. In 2010, Honeck was awarded an honorary doctorate from St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa. Apart from his numerous tasks as conductor, he has been artistic director of the "International Concerts Wolfegg" in Germany for more than 15 years. Honeck served as principal guest conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra from 2008 to 2011, a position he has resumed for another three years at the beginning of the 2013-2014 season. As a guest conductor, Honeck has worked with major orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Staatskapelle Dresden, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and the Vienna Philharmonic and in the United States with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra Washington and Boston Symphony Orchestra. Manfred Honeck's successful work with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is now captured by Reference Recordings. The first SACD - of Strauss tone poems - was released in fall 2013 and received rave reviews. Several additional recordings are completed and it is expected that two releases will be issued per year.

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