GERARD FLORIANO is an accomplished conductor whose passions include conducting orchestral, operatic, and choral repertoire.  Maestro Floriano maintains a busy schedule as artistic director, music director, music educator, and guest conductor having led concerts throughout Europe and the United States. Floriano serves as Distinguished Professor of Music and Conducting at the State University of New York at Geneseo where he regularly conducts the Geneseo Symphony Orchestra and Geneseo Chamber Singers and where he has served as department chair for the past nine years.  He is the visionary force and Artistic Director of Finger Lakes Opera.  Now in its eleventh 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,”  and City Newspaper wrote of the Rochester Chamber Orchestra’s New York State premiere performance of Louise Farrenc’s Symphony No. 1, “ Floriano and the RCO presented this rare piece splendidly and with such palpable enthusiasm that you’d think it had been in the musicians’ repertoire for years. The tempos were well judged, and the music practically leapt into the Hochstein Performance Hall.”

In 2024 Maestro Floriano will conduct the world premiere of Two Corners, a newly commissioned opera from composer B.E. Boykin and librettist Jarrod Lee.  A recipient of an Opera America Commissioning Grant and co-produced with Cincinnati Opera, Maestro Floriano will lead workshops of Two Corners in Cincinnati and Rochester and lead the world premiere performance as a culmination of the 2024 Finger Lakes Opera season.   Recent highlight performances include leading the opening concert of the 2023 Ravenna Festival in Ravenna, Italy which featured the Requiems of Mozart and Salieri with The Cappella Musicale della Basilica San Francesco. 2023 also saw Maestro Floriano lead Finger Lakes Opera’s spectacular 10th anniversary season including a critically celebrated production of  Verdi’s Aida.

Recent performance highlights saw Maestro Floriano lead performances of Beethoven’s 9th, Symphony and Dvorak’s New World Symphony with the Geneseo Symphony Orchestra, as well as six critically acclaimed concerts throughout Italy with the Geneseo Chamber Singers.   Other recent performances saw Maestro Floriano leading a new production of Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia and a performance of Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass with the Geneseo Symphony Orchestra and Chorus.

As an esteemed music educator whose inspirational work with young musicians spans more than three decades, Floriano has guest conducted all-state ensembles from throughout the US and has had led the Geneseo Chamber Singers in spotlight performance ats all-state and all-national conferences of the American Choral Directors’ Associationa and the National Association of Music Educators.  Floriano has been honored by the State University of New York, achieving the pinnacle rank of Distinguished Service Professor at SUNY Geneseo, where he also serves as Chair of the Department of Music and Professor of Conducting and Ensembles.  Additionally he is a recipient of the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activity.  Other conducting highlights have included fellowships at the Aspen Summer Music Festival and the Oregon Bach Festival, guest conducting the Philharmonic Orchestras of Rochester and Buffalo, Resident Conductor at the Brevard Music Center and professor of conducting at the Conductor’s Institute at Italy Opera Viva.  Floriano lives in upstate New York with his wife Joan who is also a highly respected performer and teacher of voice.