This site will look much better in a browser that supports web standards, but it is accessible to any browser or Internet device.

Conductors

Gerard Floriano, Greater Buffalo Youth Orchestra Conductor

Gerard Floriano is an active conductor in both the orchestral and choral arenas. Dr. Floriano serves as the Director of Choral Activities at the State University of New York, where his duties include conducting the Geneseo Chamber Singers, Carol Choristers, and Festival Chorus. In addition, he is currently in his 15th season as Music Director of the widely acclaimed Greater Buffalo Youth Orchestra and is the Resident Conductor at the Brevard Summer Music Festival. He has been the Associate Conductor of the Eastman Philharmonia Orchestra, Conducting Assistant to Maestro John Nelson with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, and Director of Choral Activities as Memphis State University. His performances have been broadcast on National Public Radio, WXXI ­ Live from Hochstein in Rochester, and WNED in Buffalo.

This past season, Dr. Floriano, together with BPO Music Director, JoAnn Falletta, led the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and Greater Buffalo Youth Orchestra together in a joint educational concert entitled "Stars of Today with the Stars of Tomorrow". The program was so successful that it has already been renewed for next season. Other guest conducting engagements include performances with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in their Stained Glass Concert Series, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchard Park Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Finger Lakes Symphony Orchestra. He has led the Greater Buffalo Youth Orchestra on two European concert tours to Italy and Spain including performances in Florence, Vicenza, Venice, Madrid, El Vendrel, and Barcelona. In addition, Dr. Floriano's Geneseo Chamber Singers have been selected to perform at the NYSSMA Conference, and have recently returned from their ninth European Concert having performed in Poland, the Czech Republic and Germany.

Dr. Floriano is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music and has been a recipient of Conducting Fellowships at the Aspen Summer Music Festival as well as the Oregon Bach Festival. He resides in Rochester, NY with his wife Joan and their children, Katherine, Michael, and Maria.


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.