{ ARTISTIC STAFF }

Gerard Floriano is an accomplished choral and orchestral conductor who has worked extensively in opera.  Maestro Floriano maintains a busy schedule as artistic director, music director and guest conductor, having led concerts throughout Europe and the United States. He is the visionary force and Artistic Director of Finger Lakes Opera.  Now in its ninth season, FLO is the premier summer opera experience for audiences in western New York and the Finger Lakes region of New York State.  Floriano has been described by the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle as “nothing less than a virtuosic conductor” who leads his orchestra “with color, precision and a welcome degree of sweep.”   FLO’s production of L'elisir d'amore garnered this acclaim from Rochester City Newspaper, "...Musical director and Finger Lakes Opera artistic director Gerard Floriano paced the whole show to perfection, and the orchestra had every Donizettian detail in place.”   ​

Pre-pandemic highlights saw Maestro Floriano lead critically acclaimed performances of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony featuring with the Geneseo Symphony Orchestra, and Geneseo Festival Singers; and six sold-out performances in Spain with the Geneseo Chamber Singers. Under Floriano’s artistic leadership, Finger Lakes Opera moved to an entirely virtual platform during the pandemic, featuring over 15 virtual performances as well as his newly created video podcast series entitled:  Great Voices of the 20th Century which highlight historic opera recordings from the 20th century, as well as a video series entitled: Behind the Curtain,  in which he interviews some of FLO’s stage directors with a focus on the creative process.  Upcoming engagements will feature a new production of Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia as part of Finger Lakes Opera’s 2021 season and a 2021 performance of Mozart’s Requiem with the Geneseo Festival Singers and Symphony Orchestra.   Under Floriano’s leadership the Geneseo Chamber Singers have commissioned American composer Jocelyn Hagen to compose a new a cappella work to be premiered in March of 2022.  In the spring of 2022, The Geneseo Chamber Singers, under Maestro Floriano's direction, will embark upon their 14th international concert tour. 

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Floriano has recently been named Distinguished Service Professor at SUNY Geneseo where he serves as Chair of the Department of Music and Director of Choral Activities.  Additionally he is a recipient of the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activity.  Other conducting positions have included fellowships at the Aspen Summer Music Festival and the Oregon Bach Festival, Resident Conductor at the Brevard Music Center, Co-artistic Director of Mercury Opera Rochester, and Music Director of the Greater Buffalo Youth Orchestra.  

Award winning stage director Stephanie Havey is consistently lauded for her eye-popping stage pictures, brisk dramatic pacing, and convincing theatre that makes the most of every minute.

Ms. Havey has staged productions for Seattle Opera, Opera de Montreal, The Dallas Opera, Utah Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, Arizona Opera, Opera Omaha, Madison Opera, New York City Opera, and Hawai’i Opera Theatre, among others, and has created new productions for Boston Lyric Opera, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Opera, The Atlanta Opera, Lyrique-en-mer International Festival de Belle-Ile, The Curtis Institute of Music, and Manhattan School of Music, among others.  She has also been a member of the staging staff at San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, and The Santa Fe Opera.

A frequent collaborator for the development of new opera, Ms. Havey has staged new works with Opera Philadelphia for their Double Exposure event, OPERA America’s New Works Forum, and spent three seasons as the Resident Stage Director for the North American New Opera Workshop.  Ms. Havey is currently in development for a new work with composer Jennifer Jolley through the 2023 OPERA America Discovery Grant for Women Composers program. 

Ms. Havey is the Director of the Young Artist Program at Finger Lakes Opera in Rochester, New York.  This season she joins Houston Grand Opera as a dramatic coach for the Butler Opera Studio and the Young Artists Vocal Academy.  She has also been a guest instructor for professional and academic Young Artist training programs including OPERA America’s Career Blueprints, Curtis Institute of Music, Mannes School of Music at The New School, Manhattan School of Music, Oberlin Conservatory of Music, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, UNSCA A. J. Fletcher Opera Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Central City Opera, Tulsa Opera, and Charlottesville Opera.

Jason Alexander Holmes is a music educator and performer from Ridgeway, VA. Before stepping into the role of Artistic Director of the Cincinnati Boychoir, he was Director of Educational Programming at the Boston Children’s Chorus. Prior to his time in Boston, Jason taught music at the elementary and secondary levels. He also led the University of Rochester Gospel Choir and the Eastman Young Children’s Chorus. 

As a bass-baritone, Jason has performed a varied repertoire from Jason Robert Brown’s Parade to Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with community and professional companies. With Finger Lakes Opera, Jason has been the coach/accompanist for the young artist program and chorus master. In 2016, Jason conducted the Rochester Festival Chorus for The Underground Railroad: A Spiritual Journey with Kathleen Battle and Joel Martin. 

​At the core of Jason’s teaching and performing is the belief that we are all expressive and musical beings who deserve to witness and create moments of truth and beauty. 

Cris Frisco is a collaborative musician equally at home in the worlds of classical and  popular music. He is Director of Music and Director of the Handorf Company Artist  Program at Opera Memphis. This season, he conducts Little Women at Opera  Fayetteville, La Bohème at Opera Birmingham, and Pagliacci and a double bill of  Donizetti’s Pigmalione and Paterson’s The Companion at Opera Memphis; and is the  music director for the McCarter Theatre’s production of A Christmas Carol. He also  partners singers in recital in Los Angeles, New York, and Indiana. He is the music director for Anatomiae Occultii’s contemporary dance  production of Sweeney Todd, currently in  development.  A committed educator for the next generation of artists, he has served on the faculty of Westminster Choir College, Rutgers University, City  University of New York, the Castleton Festival, the Mostly Modern Festival, and  Westminster’s CoOPERAtive. He is the founder and artistic director of The New Voice  Project and is Music Director of Opera Fayetteville.