As founding Music Director, Maestro Lawrence Kohl has led the Pacific Chamber Symphony from its San Leandro inception in 1989 to the premier regional organization it is today.  He was the Music Director of the Ohlone College Symphony Orchestra, Conductor for the KAMSA youth orchestra and a founding member of Walnut Creek's Sierra Chamber Ensemble. A consummate clarinetist, Kohl has performed and toured with the San Francisco Symphony. He was awarded a full fellowship at the Aspen Music Festival, was the first Chancellor's Fellow at UCLA and is a National Art Association prizewinner.  Joshua Kosman says in the San Francisco Chronicle, "Kohl's avid direction gave the music just the right blend of public rhetoric and intimate delicacy."