Manfred Honeck was born in Austria and studied music at the Academy of Music in Vienna. An accomplished violinist and violist, he spent more than ten years as a member of the Vienna Philharmonic and the Vienna State Opera Orchestra. It is this experience that has heavily influenced his conducting and helped give it a distinctive stamp.

He commenced 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. Subsequently, he was engaged by the Zurich Opera House, where he was bestowed the prestigious European Conductor’s Award in 1993.

In 1996, Manfred Honeck began a three-year stint as one of three main conductors of the MDR Symphony Orchestra Leipzig and in 1997, he served as Music Director at the Norwegian National Opera in Oslo for a year. A highly successful tour of Europe with the Oslo Philharmonic marked the beginning of a close collaboration with this orchestra which consequently appointed him Principal Guest Conductor, a post he held for several years. From 2000 to 2006 he was Music Director of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra Stockholm. In 2007 Manfred Honeck assumed his post as Music Director of the Staatsoper Stuttgart. In  September 2008 he became the Principal Guest Conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra in Prague. After several highly successful guest appearances leading the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, he was appointed its ninth Music Director and began his tenure at the start of the 2008/2009 season.

As a guest conductor Manfred Honeck has worked with major European orchestras such as the BR Symphony Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Czech Philharmonic and the Vienna Philharmonic and in the US with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra Washington and Boston Symphony Orchestra.

His operatic guest appearances include Semperoper in Dresden, Komische Oper Berlin, Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels and Royal Opera of Copenhagen. He conducted Mozarts Così fan tutte at the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg and at the Salzburg Festival. He also chose this work for his first, very successful, appearance in Stuttgart; his performances in his first season as General Music Director there included premieres of Berlioz's Les Troyens and Mozart's Idomeneo. In July 2009 he conducted a concert performance of Mozart's Don Giovanni  with a stellar cast at the Verbier Festival.

In the season 2009/2010 Manfred Honeck's main focus was on his obligatons in Stuttgart, Prague and Pittsburgh. In Stuttgart, he conducted premieres of Rosenkavalier and Parsifal  and four symphony concerts. Several performances with the Czech Philharmonic took place in Prague. In his programs, he continues to champion neglected composers and also is dedicated to music of today and the recent past.

Manfred Honeck's second season as music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony began with highly successful tour performances in Germany and Switzerland followed by his Carnegie Hall debut in February 2010. He also continued his multi-year Mahler cyclus and launched the new "Beethoven Project", a series of concerts of all of Beethoven's symphonies and concertos. Another major highlight was an extensive tour of European musical capitals in May 2010 including Paris and Vienna. Their two CDs (Strauss's Ein Heldenleben and Mahler's First Symphony) released on the Japanese label Octavia/Exton have been critically acclaimed.

Apart from his numerous tasks as conductor, Manfred Honeck has been Artistic Director of the "International Concerts Wolfegg" in Germany for more than fifteen years.