Lawrence Foster maintains an active presence on the European stage through guest appearances with orchestras across numerous countries. His broad repertoire encompasses opera and ranges from Classical-era scores to present-day compositions.
Born in Los Angeles on October 23, 1941, to Romanian immigrant parents, Foster lost his father at age three and was subsequently adopted by his mother’s second husband, from whom he received his surname. He studied piano in Los Angeles with Joanna Grauden and received conducting instruction from Fritz Zweig, making his debut on the podium at eighteen with a Los Angeles youth orchestra; that same year he was appointed conductor of the San Francisco Ballet, a post he held until 1965. During this period he took additional lessons with Karl Böhm, Bruno Walter, and Franz Waxman, and in the early 1960s he attended conducting master classes at the Bayreuth Festival. In 1965 he joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic as assistant conductor under Zubin Mehta. That year he led the world premiere of Harrison Birtwistle’s Tragoedia, initiating a lasting dedication to contemporary music. While attending the Tanglewood Festival in Massachusetts in 1966, he was awarded the Koussevitzky Conducting Prize. By 1969 he had been named chief guest conductor of Britain’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. His operatic work in that country commenced with engagements at Scottish Opera in 1974 and at London’s Covent Garden in 1976. One of his earliest recordings, a collection of Gershwin works with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, appeared on the Erato label in 1983.
Foster launched his music directorships with that ensemble and later assumed similar positions with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, the Houston Symphony Orchestra, the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra and National Orchestra of Catalunya, and the Gulbenkian Orchestra of Lisbon, among others. He also served as principal conductor of the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra and, in 2013, became music director of the Orchestre et Opéra National de Montpellier. In the early 2020s he held the same title with both the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Marseille. His operatic activities have been equally wide-ranging, encompassing appearances at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Houston Grand Opera, the Opéra-Comique and Opéra Bastille in Paris, and a tenure as music director of the Opéra de Marseille. Foster’s recording activity spans labels including EMI, Teldec, and PentaTone Classics. In 1997 he conducted the premiere recording of Paul McCartney’s oratorio Standing Stone with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. By 2023, when he led the Gulbenkian Orchestra and violinist Arabella Steinbacher in a PentaTone recording of Bruch and Korngold violin concertos, his discography exceeded seventy-five albums.
