Lawrence Foster

Biography

Lawrence Foster (born October 23, 1941) is an American conductor of Romanian ancestry.

Foster was born in Los Angeles, California, to Jewish-Romanian parents. His father died when Foster was three years old. He was later adopted by his stepfather, from whom he took the surname Foster.

Foster studied conducting with German conductor Fritz Zweig and piano with Joanna Grauden, both in Los Angeles. His other teachers and mentors have included: Karl Böhm, Bruno Walter, Henry Lewis, and Franz Waxman.

Foster became the conductor of the San Francisco Ballet at the age of 18, and served as assistant conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta. He was awarded the Koussevitzky Conduc...