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Biography of Gerard Floriano |
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 Gerard Floriano, Artistic Director/ConductorMaestro Gerard Floriano has conducted in many of America's premier concert halls, including Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall, as well as abroad in both Spain and Italy, most notably as Conductor at the prestigious Artist Alliance International Choral Festival in Vicenza, Italy. At one time Conducting Assistant to Maestro John Nelson with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Dr. Floriano has been Guest Conductor with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic, and the Finger Lakes Symphony, and he has spent many years at Brevard Summer Music Festival as Resident Conductor for this renowned orchestral training institute. His imagination and commitment to family programming includes original productions integrating music history with contemporary culture such as "Music from Around the World and Hogwarts" and "The Time Traveler Rocks New Musical Frontiers". His reputation, as an innovator and an expert at training musicians of all ages, was recognized by the League of American Orchestras in 2004.
A conductor equally accomplished in the orchestral, choral, and operatic arenas, Dr Floriano was founding Artistic Director of the critically acclaimed Rochester Opera factory, and is now in his fifth season as Co-Artistic Director of Mercury Opera Rochester. Under his baton, the Greater Buffalo Youth Orchestra has ambitiously toured domestically and internationally to continued rave reviews. Dr. Floriano has been Associate Conductor of the Eastman Philharmonic Orchestra, Conductor of the Transylvania Youth Orchestra, and was given a spotlight at the MENC's 50th Anniversary Conference conducting the All Eastern Conference Orchestra. He has also directed honors festivals in states as diverse as California, Illinois, Montana, and New York.
Past Director of Choral Activities at Memphis State University, Gerard Floriano is Professor of Conducting and Director of Choral Activities at the State University of New York (SUNY) Geneseo where he was recently honored with the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activity."
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Dennis Lell, Greater Buffalo String Orchestra Conductor
Dennis Lell has been active as a music educator, musician and conductor in the Buffalo area for many years since graduating from Fredonia College in 1968. He retired from the music faculty of the Hamburg Central School District in 2001 where he taught woodwinds and strings for 31 years. He has performed as a violist in the Orchard Park, Amherst, and Cheektowaga community orchestras. He is the founder and conductor of the Four Centuries Chamber Orchestra in Hamburg, which he formed in 1983. For several years Mr. Lell was conductor the Chamber Orchestra at the Buffalo Suzuki Strings Summer Workshop formed in 1982. He also served as conductor of the Greater Buffalo Youth Chamber Orchestra during 1983-1986. He was a guest conductor of the Clarence Summer Orchestra concert series in July 1990. During the 1997 season, he was a guest conductor of the Orchard Park Symphony and guest conductor of the Oneida County Junior High Music Festival Orchestra in Oriskany, NY. In 1998 he was appointed to the position of conductor of the Greater Buffalo Youth String Orchestra. In addition to GBYSO, Mr. Lell currently conducts the Amherst Chamber Ensembles Orchestra as well as the Four Centuries Chamber Orchestra.
Mr. Lell also has experience in orchestra management, serving as General Manager of the GBYO, the Orchard Park Symphony Orchestra, the Green Bay Symphony Orchestra in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and the Nassau Symphony Orchestra in Garden City on Long Island, NY.
Mr. Lell earned both his B.S. in Music Education degree in 1968 and Master of Music degree in 1972 from SUNY at Fredonia. During his undergraduate study at Fredonia, he performed as principal clarinet for two years in the Fredonia College Symphony and was chosen to present an Honors Recital on the clarinet in his senior year. While at Fredonia College, he also studied viola with Ralph Jackno. He has studied orchestral conducting with Ascher Temkin at the Brockport Summer Conductor's Institute, with Charles Bruch at the Pierre Monteaux Domaine School for Advanced Conductors and Orchestral Players in Hancock, Maine, and with Harold Farberman at the American Symphony Orchestra League Conductor's Guild Summer Institute in Morgantown, West Virginia. He was a Finalist in the National Adult Conducting Competition held in LaCrosse, Wisconsin in 1981 where he conducted in the competition's finalist concert.
Mr. Lell continues to play viola in community orchestras in the Buffalo area, enjoys gourmet cooking, and teaches skiing as a certified Alpine ski instructor at the Holimont ski area in Ellicottville, NY. |
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