Manfred Honeck conducts during a rehearsal of a Mahler piece in September with the Pittsburgh Symphony. Honeck began his three-year contract with the symphony in September.

PITTSBURGH — The contract to conduct the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra was on Manfred Honeck's desk when he got another offer: to be music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

The Austrian-born conductor said the decision was easy.

"You have to decide with your heart, and my heart was with Pittsburgh," Honeck said in an interview. "I knew it's wonderful to be music director of this orchestra."

He just had to make sure he didn't upset the Czech Philharmonic and offered them twice as many dates next year as principal guest conductor.

Honeck celebrated his 50th birthday and began his three-year contract with the Pittsburgh Symphony in September.

He will have eight weeks of conducting in the first season with 10 weeks in subsequent seasons. He also will tour with the orchestra to Vienna's famed Musikverein concert hall in 2010 and 2011, and the Proms in London in 2010.

Honeck was music director of the Swedish Radio Company from 2000 to 2006, music director of the Stuttgart State Opera and has had guest engagements at the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Munich, the German Symphony Orchestra in Berlin and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, among others.

The Pittsburgh Symphony is among several U.S. orchestras with new conductors.

Across the state, Swiss conductor Charles Dutoit became chief conductor and artistic adviser of the Philadelphia Orchestra, which had parted company with Christoph Eschenbach. Hungarian conductor Ivan Fischer became principal conductor of Washington's National Symphony until the 2010-11 season, when Eschenbach takes over as music director. And Dutch conductor Jaap van Zweden began a four-year stint as musical director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.

Honeck replaces three conductors — Andrew Davis, Yan Pascal Tortelier and Marek Janowksi — who shared the music director role after Mariss Jansons left in 2004.

Pittsburgh Symphony officials knew they wanted Honeck after he conducted the orchestra in 2006 — twice in Pittsburgh and once at Philadelphia's Kimmel Center.

"The orchestra, at rehearsal, said, 'This is the guy,"' symphony president and CEO Larry Tamburri said. "From then on, it was just a matter of talking to see what we could work out."

The symphony's board chairman, Richard Simmons, said the chemistry between Honeck and the musicians was "like none other I have seen."

Horn player Joe Rounds, approaching his 21st year with the orchestra, said he had never seen a music director welcomed with such enthusiasm.

"So rare in life do all the stars align, so that the perfect person with the perfect musical expression meets the orchestra that is in that place at the time," Rounds said.

That the Pittsburgh Symphony landed a Honeck should come as no surprise.

"It is one of the longest standing and historic orchestras in the world. It has always been recognized as one of the great orchestras in the world," said the North Carolina Symphony's Bruce Ridge, who also chairs the International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians.