{ ABOUT FINGER LAKES OPERA }
WHO WE ARE
We believe opera embodies life. out loud.
Finger Lakes Opera produces fully staged operas of the highest caliber, engaging with a varied roster of professional artists, directors, and designers. Through the Finger Lakes Opera Young Artist Program, Finger Lakes Opera offers training and performance opportunities to emerging artists from all over the world and across a variety of backgrounds. Finger Lakes Opera seeks to cultivate and develop an understanding and appreciation of opera, bringing the art form to new and diverse audiences within the community and throughout the region.
Founded in 2012 by current artistic director Gerard Floriano, Finger Lakes Opera became an independent non-profit organization in 2017. Executive director Elizabeth G. Long was hired in 2019, marking the beginning of FLO's expansion and increased presence that continues today, including a major donation that makes the Tomita Young Artist Program possible.
OUR VALUES
Openness – Finger Lakes Opera acknowledges its obligations to its patrons and its community. Therefore, the company must uphold fiscal integrity and transparency at all times and ensure responsible stewardship of its donors and donations.
Passion – Opera is an awe-inspiring art form. Weaving together talented main-stage singers, chorus, and orchestra members with spectacular sets and resplendent costumes makes for truly extraordinary art time and time again. The best part is that each performance means something different to each patron. Each patron is treated to their own magical experience as long as enough passion is poured into each production.
Engagement – Finger Lakes Opera strives to serve the community not only through extraordinary main-stage performances but also through educational and artistic programs that reach diverse audiences. Finger Lakes Opera does this through collaborating with a broad range of community organizations and engaging artists from diverse backgrounds who can convey the purpose, power, and relevance of the opera to people of all ages, races, and ethnic backgrounds.
Responsibility – Finger Lakes Opera is committed to serving the community by using all its resources for the production and dissemination of high-quality performances. FLO's board and staff make a conscious effort to eliminate inherent racism, implicit bias, social inequity, and privilege in its governance and operations. FLO is an equal opportunity employer committed to hiring candidates that will work best with the team regardless of race, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, and/or age.
Artistic Accountability – Finger Lakes Opera’s top priority is to maintain artistic excellence within all productions and educational programs.
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).