GRAMMY award-winning conductor Lucas Richman has served as Music Director for the Bangor Symphony Orchestra since 2010 and held the position as Music Director for the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra from 2003-2015. Over the course of over four decades on the podium, he has garnered an international reputation for his graceful musical leadership in a diverse field of media. In concert halls, orchestral pits and recording studios around the world, Richman earns rave reviews for his artful collaborations with artists in both the classical and commercial music arenas.
He has appeared as guest conductor with numerous orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Pops, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Baltimore Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra and Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Russian National Orchestra, the Oslo Philharmonic, the SWR Radio Orchestra of Kaiserslautern, the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, the Zhejiang Symphony Orchestra, the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional, Israel Camerata Orchestra Jerusalem and the Zagreb Philharmonic.
In recent years, Mr. Richman has led performances with notable soloists in both the classical and pop worlds, ranging from Mstislav Rostropovich, Lang Lang, Midori, Gil Shaham, Emanuel Ax, Yefim Bronfman, and Frederica von Stade to James Taylor, Michael Jackson, Gloria Estefan, Matthew Morrison, Martin Short, Victor Borge and Brian Wilson. His numerous collaborations with film composers as their conductor has yielded recorded scores for such films as the Academy Award-nominated The Village (with violinist, Hilary Hahn), As Good As It Gets, Face/Off, Se7en, The Manchurian Candidate, Madame Web, Highest 2 Lowest and Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere; in 2010, John Williams invited him to lead the three-month national summer tour of Star Wars in Concert. 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.
Also an accomplished composer, Mr. Richman has had his music performed by over two hundred orchestras and ensembles across the United States. He has fulfilled commissions for numerous organizations including the Pittsburgh Symphony, Knoxville Symphony, Bangor Symphony, Johnstown Symphony, the Debussy Trio, the Seattle Chamber Music Society and the Stulberg International String Competition. Mr. Richman’s recent CD release of solo piano works, Lucas Richman: Variations, is available through all music streaming services and www.ledorgroup.com, while his work in advocacy for the unsheltered is manifested through the Paths to Dignity Project (www.pathstodignity.com). His Tikkun Olam (Heal the World) was performed on every Boston Pops Holiday Concert in December, 2023, while premieres in 2024 included the choral work, Y’varechecha (Priestly Blessing) and the Vatican premiere of the chamber opera, Blood&Breath. His Concerto No. 2 for Violin: Legacy (commissioned for the 50th anniversary of the Stulberg International String Competition) was premiered by the Kalamazoo Symphony on March 28, 2026.
Mr. Richman is a respected leader in the field of planning and conducting concerts for young people and his works written specifically for children have been featured in young people’s concerts presented by numerous orchestras including the Atlanta Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the San Antonio Symphony. 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®, has appeared with orchestras throughout the United States, including the symphonies of Knoxville, Bangor, Syracuse and Rochester.
Mr. Richman earned a Master of Music degree in orchestral conducting from the University of Southern California as a student of Daniel Lewis after receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree from UCLA in violin performance. He studied conducting privately with Fritz Zweig and Victor Yampolsky, and was also selected as a conducting fellow in master classes with Pierre Boulez, André Previn, Herbert Blomstedt and Kurt Sanderling. In 1988, he was one of four international conductors honored by Leonard Bernstein to share the maestro’s podium for concerts with the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival Orchestra presented in London, Moscow and selected cities in Germany. Mr. Richman went on to serve as the Assistant Conductor for the Pacific Symphony Orchestra from 1988-1991, and then served as Assistant and Resident Conductor for Mariss Jansons and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra between 1998-2004.
Mr. Richman gives back regularly to the community and future generations of musicians through his teaching, board leadership and his work in partnering musical ensembles with health care facilities in order to extend the healing power of music. Mr. Richman has served on the faculty of the UCLA Music and Theatre Departments, Stephen Wise Music Academy, Brandeis-Bardin Institute, American Center for Music Theatre and Pittsburgh’s City Music Center among others. Mr. Richman co-founded the BMI (Broadcast Music Incorporated) Conducting for the Film Composer Workshop, which he has led annually since 1997, teaching conducting to over 160 of the leading film and television composers of this generation.
As founders of a nationally-respected Music and Wellness program, Mr. Richman and the Knoxville Symphony were the recipients of the 2006 Bank of America Award for Excellence in Orchestra Education, as well as a multi-year grant from the Getty Foundation. In 2007, BMI presented him with their Classic Contribution Award at the annual BMI Film and Television Awards Gala. He was also named Composer of the Year by the Tennessee Music Teachers Association in 2005. 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.