Born in Vienna, Honeck studied at the Academy of Music there and performed as a string player with the Vienna Philharmonic and Vienna State Opera. After launching his conducting career as an assistant with Claudio Abbado's Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, he conducted at the Zurich Opera House from 1991 to 1996 and led the Norwegian National Opera in 1997 and '98. He has also held positions at the MDR Symphony Orchestra Leipzig, the Oslo Philharmonic, and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, where he concludes a six-year term as music director in 2006.