{ ABOUT FINGER LAKES OPERA }
WHO WE ARE
We believe opera embodies life. out loud.
OUR MISSION:
Finger Lakes Opera, Inc. (FLO) is committed to the professional creation and production of opera in Rochester and the Finger Lakes region with a roster of mainstage and emerging young artists drawn from diverse regions and backgrounds. Through engagement and accessibility, FLO adds value to the cultural and economic landscape of the community.
OUR VISION:
FLO leverages the transcendent power of opera to captivate audiences from all backgrounds, to inspire creativity, to foster the next generation of young artists and opera enthusiasts, and to be an essential and accessible part of the community.
OUR VALUES:
COMMUNITY - FLO serves the Rochester/Finger Lakes community with accessible programming that engages, inspires, and delights audiences of all ages and backgrounds.
CREATIVITY - FLO presents creative mainstage opera productions and supports the development of new opera to sustain opera in our times and beyond.
ENGAGEMENT - FLO serves people of all ages and backgrounds with audience-centered educational programming experienced in accessible, affordable, welcoming community venues.
ACCESSIBILITY - FLO strives to remove barriers and build bridges to participation with the opera artform.
RESPECT - FLO works to cultivate a culture that elevates everyone within it and treats all with dignity, which in turn contributes to artistic and organizational excellence.
PASSION - FLO is passionate in its persistence and is relentless in bringing opera in all its forms to the forefront of our community.
EXCELLENCE - FLO demands and celebrates excellence in every aspect of its production of professional opera.
INCLUSIVITY - FLO embraces the diversity of its artists, staff, and audience, honoring different identities, promoting equity and inclusion, and respecting the ideas and contributions of each individual.
BLACK LIVES MATTER
As part of Finger Lakes Opera's commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, the company stands in solidarity with the Black community now and always. Finger Lakes Opera stands in strong condemnation of the generations of unjust violence against Black people and their communities. Finger Lakes Opera supports people of color and all minority communities who have been marginalized, ostracized, and dehumanized. Finger Lakes Opera stands for equality and diversity, serving the community as an organization committed to inclusion and dignity for all.
Finger Lakes Opera is proud to be one of many companies that has signed a pledge with the Black Opera Alliance, working towards racial equity and systemic change in opera.
Rochester, NY is located on Indigenous Lands of the Seneca (Onödowáʼga) Nation, which translates to “People of the Great Hill”. Also known as the “Keeper of the Western Door” due to their westernmost position, the Seneca Nation is the largest of the Six Nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. We acknowledge their long-standing presence on this land, which precedes the establishment of both New York State and the United States of America.
Their ancestral land, which comprised much of the Finger Lakes and Western New York regions, was stolen first by Great Britain and subsequently by the United States of America following the American Revolutionary War. The Treaty of Canandaigua, signed in 1794, established “perpetual peace and friendship” between America and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, though the treaty has been almost entirely dishonored by the American Government.
Two of the three remaining federally recognized Seneca tribes are located in modern-day New York State: the Seneca Nation of Indians and Tonawanda Seneca Nation (in addition to the Seneca-Cayuga Nation located in modern-day Oklahoma).