Lawrence Foster has been Chief Conductor of many orchestras over the years. After ten years as Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Gulbenkian Orchestra he has just taken on the post of General Music Director of the Marseille Philharmonic Orchestra. He also retains close ties with the NDR Sinfonieorchester Hamburg, the Czech Philharmonie Orchestra and Helsinki Philharmonie Orchestra. Other engagements during 2012/13 include concerts with the Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España and Orchestre de Chambre de Paris (both with Ute Lemper), the Orchestre National de Lyon (with Radu Lupu), Orquestra Simfonica de Barcelona, the MDR Sinfonieorchester Leipzig, Copenhagen Philharmonic, Houston Symphony (with Joshua Bell), the Konzerthausorchester Berlin and Orquestra Sinfonica do Estado de São Paulo. He will also be returning to the Schleswig Holstein Musik Festival in 2013. He is much in demand for operatic work, forthcoming productions include Massenet’s Cléopâtre, Berlioz’ Les Troyens, Falstaff and Der fliegende Holländer/The Flying Dutchman in Marseille, Das schlaue Füchslein/The Cunning Little Vixen at the Hamburg State Opera, where he is a regular guest, in 2013/14, and Rusalka in Monte Carlo.