Lawrence Foster has been the Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Gulbenkian Orchestra (Lisbon, Portugal) for 10 years with which he toured extensively with appearances at the Enescu Festival in Bucharest and the Kissinger Sommer Festival, as well as major tours to Germany, Spain and to numerous summer venues. Also from the 2012/13 season he took up the position of Music Director of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Marseille with whom he conducted two operas as well as a number of symphonic concerts. Previously he had held Music Directorships with numerous orchestras and music festivals. He has also conducted in major opera houses throughout the world. He works regularly at Hamburgische Staatsoper, Opéra de Marseille, Oper Frankfurt and for Opéra de Monte Carlo. Born in 1941 in Los Angeles to Romanian parents, Lawrence Foster has been a major champion of the music of Georg Enescu, serving as Artistic Director of the Georg Enescu Festival from 1998 to 2001. His latest Enescu recording – his own orchestration of the String Octet with Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo for EMI – was released in spring 2009. In January 2003 he was decorated by the Romanian President for services to Romanian Music.