Lucas Richman has served as Music Director for the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra since 2003 and as Music Director and Conductor for  the Bangor Symphony Orchestra since 2010. Mr. Richman received a GRAMMY Award (2011) in the category of Best Classical Crossover  Album for having conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on Christopher Tin’s classical/world fusion album, Calling All Dawns. He  has appeared as guest conductor with numerous orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles  Philharmonic, Baltimore Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra, the SWR  Radio Orchestra of Kaiserslautern (Germany), the Tiroler Kammerorchester Inn Strumenti (Austria) and the Zagreb Philharmonic (Croatia).  Mr. Richman served as Assistant and Resident Conductor for Mariss Jansons and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra between 1998-2004  and, from 1988 to 1991, he was the Assistant Conductor for the Pacific Symphony Orchestra. In recent years, he has collaborated with  notable soloists such as Mstislav Rostropovich, Garrick Ohlsson, Lang Lang, Midori, Gil Shaham, Emanuel Ax, Yefim Bronfman, Frank  Peter Zimmerman, Mark O’Connor, Andre Watts, and Radu Lupu. Over the past decade, Mr. Richman collaborated with numerous film composers as their conductor, recording scores for such films as the Academy Award-nominated The Village (with violinist, Hilary Hahn), As Good As It Gets, Face/Off, Se7en, Breakdown, The Manchurian Candidate and Kit Kittredge: An American Girl. In 2010, John Williams personally invited Mr. Richman to serve as the conductor for the three- month national summer tour of Star Wars in Concert. An  accomplished composer, Mr. Richman has had his music performed by more than two hundred orchestras in the last ten years and his works  written specifically for children have been featured in young people’s concerts presented by orchestras such as the Atlanta Symphony, the  Houston Symphony, and the Grand Rapids Symphony. In November, 2009, as the result of an NEA commission, the San Diego Symphony  Orchestra premiered his Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant, a setting of poetry by Children’s Poet Laureate, Jack Prelutsky, which Jahja Ling  and the SDSO recorded for release in September, 2011. Taking children’s concert programming and musical education to new heights for  the next generation, Mr. Richman is responsible for the creation of an animated guide to classical music, which is featured in full  symphonic concerts. The character, Picardy Penguin®, is entering its sixth year of performances with orchestras, both at home in Knoxville  and around the US.