{ ARTISTIC STAFF }

Dr. Gerard Floriano is an accomplished conductor whose passions include conducting orchestral, operatic, and choral repertoire. He maintains a busy schedule as artistic director, music director, music educator, and guest conductor, having led performances and productions throughout Europe

and the United States. 

Maestro Floriano is the visionary force and Artistic Director of Finger Lakes Opera. Now in its twelfth season, FLO has become the premier summer opera experience for audiences in upstate New York. 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.” 

This summer will see Maestro Floriano lead the world premiere production of Two Corners – a new opera by composer B.E. Boykin and Jarrod Lee. As part of the 2024 summer season at FLO he will conduct a new production of Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi. Recent performing highlights include performances of the Requiem Masses of Mozart and Salieri at the 2023 Ravenna Festival, a stunning production of Verdi’s Aida, awarded “Best Professional Opera” in 2023 by Broadway World, as well as workshop performances of Boykin’s/Lee’s Two Corners in Rochester and with Cincinnati Opera. 

As Chair of the Department of Music & Musical Theatre at The State University of New York at Geneseo Floriano has achieved SUNY’s highest rank of Distinguished Service Professor of Music, where he also serves as the Director of Choral Activities Additionally, he is a recipient of the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activity. Past conducting positions have included serving as Music Director of the Rochester Chamber Orchestra, Resident Conductor at the Brevard Music Center, Co-artistic Director of Mercury Opera Rochester, as well  as conducting fellowships at the Aspen Summer Music Festival and the Oregon Bach Festival. Floriano lives in Rochester, NY with his wife, Joan Floriano, who is also an accomplished

performer and teacher of voice.

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, The Dallas Opera, Opéra de Montréal, Utah Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, Arizona Opera, New York City Opera, and Hawai’i Opera Theatre, Boston Lyric Opera, The Philadelphia Orchestra, The Atlanta Opera, Lyrique-en-mer International Festival de Belle-Ile, The Curtis Institute of Music, and Manhattan School of Music.  She has also been a member of the staging staff at San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, and The Santa Fe Opera.

Recent engagements include new productions of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo and Benjamin Britten’s Albert Herring for Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and L’amant anonyme for Madison Opera. Ms Havey is currently in development for a new commission through the OPERA America 2023 Grant for Women Composers with composer Jennifer Jolley. 

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.

Pianist, vocal coach, and conductor Brock Tjosvold is Assistant Professor of Vocal Coaching at the Eastman School of Music. Before coming to Eastman, he was the Music Director of the award-winning Crane Opera Ensemble at SUNY Potsdam. During his time as conductor, the ensemble won first place in their division of the 2022-23 National Opera Association Production Competition and 3rd prize in the opera production category of The American Prize. Brock has also led workshops for the finals of the Domenic J. Pellicciotti Opera Composition Prize. As a DMA student at Eastman, Brock won the Excellence in Accompanying Award, as well as the Ann C. Fehn Memorial Award (first prize pianist) in the 2021 Jessie Kneisel Lieder Competition, where he performed unpublished songs by Rebecca Clarke, some of which received their world premiere. He has performed with the Grand Teton Music Festival, Albany Symphony, New World Symphony, Battle Creek Symphony, Finger Lakes Opera, The Art Song Preservation Society of New York, and has performed at Carnegie Hall. Brock has appeared as soloist with the National Repertory Orchestra, and has attended the Aspen Music Festival and Music Academy of the West with full fellowships. He previously attended Indiana University, the University of Michigan, and the University of Wyoming.