{ BOARD OF DIRECTORS }

Rose-Marie Klipstein has been a community volunteer in Rochester for over 45 years, serving on boards of schools, libraries, and the arts, including The Norman Howard School, Literacy Volunteers, Brighton Memorial Library, Friends of Eastman Opera, among others. She taught at Nazareth College and maintained a private practice tutoring learning disabled adolescents while raising three sons with her late husband, Dr. Frederick Klipstein.

Helen Zamboni, a lifelong lover of opera, is one of the founding members of the Board of Directors of Finger Lakes Opera, Inc. She grew up in the New York City metropolitan area and went to her first performance at the “old” Metropolitan Opera House on her eighth birthday. Helen has served on the Board of Trustees of Geva Theatre Center, a regional theater in Rochester, New York, and the Board of Directors of the YMCA of Greater Rochester (Board Chair 1999-2001) and remains an active volunteer of both organizations. In her professional life, Helen is Senior Counsel at the Rochester, New York, law firm of Underberg & Kessler LLP, concentrating in the corporate, real estate and health care practice areas of law.

Marion Swett Robinson is a financial services professional at Atrevida Partners, an investment advisor and hedge fund manager located in Rye, NY. Her business career spans a number of global financial institutions, including Bankers Trust Company, Deutsche Bank and Nomura Securities. In addition to her role on Finger Lakes Opera's board, she also serves on the Mesa Verde Foundation, a non-profit philanthropic partner to Mesa Verde National Park. Her interests include classical music, travel, and western plein air art. As a child, she studied music (piano, drum, theory, sight reading) at the Eastman School of Music. She has a BA from Wellesley College and an MA and MBA from Stanford Business School. 

Patricia Carey’s expertise and employment have centered around non-profit administration. She served as Executive Director of Voluntary Action Center and Granger Homestead and Carriage Museum in Canandaigua, Business Manager at Gilda’s Club in Rochester and spent 14 years with Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School. Tricia has long been an active volunteer, having served on boards for The Susan B. Anthony House, Fairport Baptist Home Foundation Board, the Rochester Chamber Orchestra, and many others. She is currently part of the Rochester Women’s Giving Circle and in addition to her board position with FLO, Tricia is the Treasurer of the Ontario County Historical Society Board of Directors and volunteers with the PRIS program at the Brighton Memorial Library.

Bio coming soon!

Christopher Dahl is President Emeritus and retired Professor of English at SUNY Geneseo. A life-long choral singer and opera lover, he helped Gerard Floriano found Finger Lakes Opera at Geneseo in 2012. He achieved the pinnacle of his operatic career, however, in the 1980s, when he appeared as an extra in several Metropolitan Opera productions in Detroit, back when the Met still toured. He has served on or chaired a variety of Rochester-area and national boards including those of the Rochester Area Colleges, the Allendale-Columbia School, the Center for Governmental Research, and the Association of American Colleges and Universities.

Bliss has over 40 years of experience as a CPA assisting businesses with accounting, taxation, and succession planning. She currently is employed at Gray Locey CPA, PLLC. In addition to her Board position with Finger Lakes Opera, she is a Trustee and Assistant Treasurer of the Episcopal Diocese of Rochester, Board Member of the Corporation for the Relief of Widows and Children of the Clergymen of the Episcopal Church and Board Member of the Estate Planning Council. Recently she served for 6 years as a Board Member and Treasurer of the Urban Choice Charter School. She also served for many years on the various Boards of Episcopal Senior Life Communities.

​Margaret A. Sánchez is Principal of Sánchez & Associates; a Rochester-based, organization development consulting firm. Her experience includes senior management roles in both the private and not-for-profit sectors and as adjunct faculty member at both the university and community college levels. Her expertise includes organizational culture change, strategic planning, diversity initiatives, leadership development, assessment and research, and group facilitation processes.

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She currently resides in Rochester, NY, where she dedicates significant time and energy in volunteer activities and has served in volunteer leadership roles for the Rochester Area Community Foundation, the American Red Cross-Greater Rochester Chapter, the Al Sigl Foundation, and Literacy Volunteers of Rochester. In addition to Finger Lakes Opera, she currently serves on the board of PathStone Foundation and Action for a Better Community.

A commercial trial lawyer for more than 40 years, Rob is also a philosophy professor and journalist, who splits his time between Chicago and Honeoye, NY.  During the pandemic, he has continued his teaching in the U.S. and, virtually, abroad, in India, China, and Vietnam.  Starting in the spring of 2022, he will be teaching philosophy at St. Bonaventure University.  He and his wife, Susan, a retired high school history teacher and Holocaust scholar, are enthusiastic patrons of the arts.  In addition to being a board member at FLO, Rob serves on the boards of Chicago Opera Theater and the University of Chicago’s Court Theater and has a weekly radio show on classical music and opera on student radio.

Karen Tinsmon is a legal and corporate governance professional at The Canandaigua National Bank and Trust Company.  She focuses on board governance, subsidiary management, and corporate insurance. Prior to joining the financial services industry in 2018, Karen’s career included positions in healthcare administration and not-for-profit consulting. Karen is a member of Ontario County’s Leadership Ontario inaugural Class of 2022 and continues to be active in the community.  In addition to her participation on the FLO Board, Karen has been involved with volunteer work at the Genesee Country Village and Museum, Ontario County Office for the Aging, the Humane Society of Greater Rochester at Lollypop Farm, and SewGreen@Rochester. Along with music and theater, Karen’s interests include historical textile arts and storytelling podcasts. Karen holds an MS from Rochester Institute of Technology and BS from Binghamton University. 

James Walker, SUNY Distinguished Service Professor of Music Emeritus, recently retired after 46 years at Geneseo as Director of Instrumental Activities. He holds degrees from the University of Wisconsin and Harvard University. He became the youngest conductor of a major university ensemble when he was appointed to the Harvard Faculty as Conductor of the University Bands at age 22 back in the 1960s. Jim has appeared as guest conductor with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, the University of Victory Symphony and more. He studied composition with Milton Rusch, Leon Kirchner, Roger Sessions, and Billy Jim Layton.