Lawrence Foster

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Lawrence Foster (born October 23, 1941 in Los Angeles ) is an American conductor.

Life

The son of Romanian Jewish immigrants studied with Fritz Zweig and Joanna Graudan and made his debut in 1960 with the newly established Young Musicians' Foundation Début Orchestra , which he directed until 1964. He also worked from 1962 to 1965 as the conductor of the San Francisco Ballet . From 1965 to 1968 he was Zubin Mehta's assistant with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra . In 1966 he won the Koussevitzky Memorial conductors prize in Tanglewood .

Since 1971 he has been the musical director and chief conductor of the Houston Symphony Orchestra (1971–1979), the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra (1980–1990), the Duisburg Philharmonic (1982–1987) and the Orchester de Chambre de Lausanne (1985–1990) ), the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya (1994-2002) and the Orquestra Gulbenkian in Lisbon (2002-2013).

He also worked frequently with the Australian Youth Orchestra and other youth orchestras. From 1998 to 2001 he was artistic director of the International Festival and Competition George Enescu , where he mainly performed works by Romanian composers. On the 50th anniversary of George Enescu's death , he recorded a box with his works for the EMI label .

As an opera conductor, Forster has appeared at the world's most important opera houses. In 2006 he performed a version of Claude Debussy's unfinished opera La chûte de la maison Usher (based on Edgar Allan Poe ) at the Bregenz Festival, completed by Robert Orledge . In 2008 he conducted Albert Roussel's opera Padmâvatî at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris and Ernest Reyers Salammbô at the Opéra de Marseille . From 2009 to 2012, in addition to his engagement in Lisbon, he was musical director of the Opéra National de Montpellier .

Since 2013 he has been the director of the Opéra de Marseille, since 2019 also chief conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra of Polish Radio .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Duisburg Philharmonic - General Music Directors
  2. ↑ Lawrence Foster. In: Orquestra Gulbenkian. January 16, 2019 (Portuguese).;
  3. ↑ Lawrence Foster. In: German Symphony Orchestra Berlin . March 2019 .;
personal data
SURNAME Foster, Lawrence
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American conductor
DATE OF BIRTH October 23, 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH Los Angeles , California, USA