Gerard Floriano '84, professor and chair of the Department of Music, will conduct the Geneseo Symphony Orchestra's first concert of the season Oct. 15.
GENESEO, N.Y. – Gerard Floriano '84, professor and chair of the Department of Music, will conduct the season’s first Geneseo Symphony Orchestra Concert Oct. 15, featuring works of Antonin Dvorak and Aaron Copland.
The concert begins at 3 p.m. in Wadsworth Auditorium and is free and open to the public. The program will include Copland’s “Outdoor Overture” and Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9, “From the New World.”
“It is my pleasure to conduct the Geneseo Symphony Orchestra on this program as we look forward to Dr. Leah McGray’s tenure as the new Director of Instrumental Activities,” said Floriano. “These two works, while diverse in musical style, both owe their existence to a similar theme: the search by late 19th and early 20th century composers for an authentic, American musical language.”
Floriano is in his 20th year on Geneseo’s music faculty and his third year as department chair. He also is director of choral activities at Geneseo and received the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activity in 2007. He earned his master’s degree and doctorate at the Eastman School of Music and his bachelor’s degree at SUNY Geneseo.
The Geneseo Symphony Orchestra is a collaboration among the best wind, percussion and string players in the student body at SUNY Geneseo and members of the music faculty, who coach, teach and perform in the ensemble. The result is an ensemble able to perform some of the finest literature written for a large orchestra.