{"id":2177,"date":"2007-04-09T13:07:10","date_gmt":"2007-04-09T13:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2007\/04\/harmony.html"},"modified":"2007-04-09T13:07:10","modified_gmt":"2007-04-09T13:07:10","slug":"harmony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/04\/harmony.html","title":{"rendered":"Harmony"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thanks to a reader for passing on this profile of the new director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra -an interesting piece, an interesting life for a number of reasons, including his faith:<\/a><\/p>\n

Manfred Honeck’s devotion to his faith impresses even clergymen, says Father
\nLudescher. "He knows very well that all the success and all the good things in
\nhis life comes not only from him, and he is very thankful to God."
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Mr. Honeck attends Mass not only on Sunday but also during the week. "He
\nlooks to get a Holy Mass wherever he is," Father Ludescher says. "If he is in
\nStockholm or Tokyo or Pittsburgh, he looks for somewhere to pray."
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Case in point is his studio in the house he and Christiane built in Altach in
\n1998. It is attractive, with steeply pitched roofs, but modest. The focal point
\nis a living room turned music studio on the first floor, where the small cellos
\nof the youngest children, Simeon, 8, and Theresa Maria, 5, sit for practice next
\nto an upright piano. Photos of the children and family fill the walls of the
\nstairs and second floor. On the third is the conductor’s studio.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/em><\/td>\n<\/a><\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/em><\/td>\nManfred Honeck’s ‘house chapel’ in the studio of
\nhis house in Altach, Austria.<\/strong><\/span>
Click photo
\nfor larger image.<\/span><\/em>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

At first blush, it looks like
\nany conductor’s studio — stereo equipment and music scores line the walls. But
\nto one side, behind the cross beams of this attic room, he points out, is a
\nsmall "house chapel," which had been a "big wish" of his for their new house.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

"I thought to do it in the cellar somewhere, to have the silence," he says,
\ngesturing with his hands as if he is conducting. "But then I saw all these
\ncrosses here and said let’s integrate it in my room. Here the family prays
\ntogether. It is very important for the family to have a half an hour just to be
\ntogether as a family."
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

For Mr. Honeck, finding the time is not a problem. "I clean my teeth every
\nday so … why not my soul?" he asks. "My relationship with God is like … if
\nyou want to have a close a relationship [with a friend], then you call them
\neveryday. The more you speak with your friend, the more you know him."
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

He has "an open heart to God," says Father Ludescher.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Honeck’s religion is personal –"far away from being fundamentalist," he
\nsays. He doesn’t evangelize but leads by example. His eldest son, Joachim, 25,
\nnow in training to be a priest, was never pushed.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

This deep commitment to his faith finds ample coupling with Mr. Honeck’s
\ninterpretations on the podium. "I think what is special to him is his deep
\nspirituality in his conducting," says Dr. Angyan.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

"He has deep ideas, I respect him so much," says Ola Karlsson, principal
\ncellist of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Honeck led that ensemble
\nfrom 2000 to 2006. "Too many conductors nowadays are more flashy and don’t work
\nenough. The real ones dig deep. He is a deep digger."<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thanks to a reader for passing on this profile of the new director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra -an interesting piece, an interesting life for a number of reasons, including his faith: Manfred Honeck’s devotion to his faith impresses even clergymen, says Father Ludescher. "He knows very well that all the success and all the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nHarmony - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/04\/harmony.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Harmony - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Thanks to a reader for passing on this profile of the new director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra -an interesting piece, an interesting life for a number of reasons, including his faith: Manfred Honeck’s devotion to his faith impresses even clergymen, says Father Ludescher. 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2177\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}