Lawrence Foster is currently music director of the Gulbenkian Orchestra, based in Lisbon. From the 2009/10 season he will also become music director of Orchestre et Opera National de Montpellier.

Highlights of this season include a complete Beethoven piano concerto cycle with Orchestre National de Lyon and Radu Lupu in April 2009, a tour of Spain with Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, and the continuation of his Enescu Symphony cycle with NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover.

He also toured with Junge Deutsche Philharmonie over Easter 2009, and will conduct the Academy Orchestra at the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival in August 2009.

Further ahead, the 2009/10 season and beyond will see him conduct Leipzig Gewandhausorchester, NDR Sinfonieorchester Hamburg, Helsinki Philharmonic, Netherlands Philharmonic, Gothenburg Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, plus an appearance at the Grafenegg Festival with the Tonkünstler Orchester in July 2010.

After the success of his recent Schumann Symphony cycle with the Czech Philharmonic (which was recorded for Pentatone), he will also return to the orchestra in spring 2011.

In the opera world, Mr Foster's commitments this season include a return to Hamburg Staatsoper for a revival of Pelleas et Melisande followed by a production of Weber's Der Freischütz in 2009/10.